Wall of Passion
by Angelpheonixwings14
Summary: It's been 5 months since Freak Nation, and the gang decides to take a break from the crazy world. A new club opened up friendly to all trans and human species, which they decide to check out. Only, Max's mind isn't on the mission because she's in heat, and the most unexpected thing happens as a result.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So I just finished watching Dark Angel tonight and fell in love with it. Sad Alec and Max never got to develop passed that point, and this scene popped into my head. It's likely just a one-shot, but if people like it enough (and I get enough reviews) maybe I'll expand upon it and develop a plot to keep the story going. Otherwise, I hope you guys enjoy! There's language and some sexiness, so you've been warned. **

**I don't own Dark Angel, nor any of the characters but Grenade. This is just supposed to be a fun read. ALSO, if you're up for it, listen to the song Dread Rock by Paul Oakenfold while you read this. It's the song I listened to for all the dancing ;) Anyway. Enjoy!**

xxxxxx

It was that time of year. She was in heat, and hadn't gotten any action in _way_ too long. Between all the craziness of her life and emotional rollercoaster with Logan, there hadn't been any time to unwind her nerves that way, not in almost 2 years. '_Good fucking grief; has it really been that long,'_ Max thought, slightly appalled at herself. Perhaps that was why, tonight, she wanted to be reckless. To be _dangerous_, like she used to be. Original Cindy had given her a ring, and told her all about this new club that opened up in Sector 4. Word was, as long as you could pay, they didn't care what you were. First place of it's kind, and it got a lot of heat for it, but they had the money to buy the muscle to keep things civil in and around it's doors. And that's because it was _expensive._

How could se say no though? It had been almost 5 months since they took their stand in Terminal City, and they didn't venture into the Ordinaries' territory often, save for supply runs or to snatch up one of their own. This was her chance to get away from her leadership duties for a night, let loose and go crazy. She _needed _this. It was also an opportunity to see how "tranny friendly" people dealt with her kind. Now, not everyone knew Max's face, but enough did to make sneaking around a bit harder. If this place was tolerant of transgenics, she wanted to be one of the first to check it out.

Of course, it was _supposed _to be a girl's night out. Then _Alec _had to go a fuck everything up. He was her second in command, so of course they crossed paths multiple times a day. She was just finishing up her duties for the day at Command Central, and grabbed her bag off her desk when he called out to her. _God_, were her nerves already itching to ravish some pool fool, so when she turned to face him, she was slightly more hostile than usual.

"_What_, Alec," Max snapped irately. Surprised, Alec's green eyes widened slightly, and he held his hands up in defense as he gave her a typical flabbergasted quirk of his lips.

"Whoa, _hey there_, Kitten," he croaked out just to piss her off. It worked too, and when he saw her lips purse and her muscles twitched in preparation to hit him, his smile turned far wrier in character. "Relax. I just came to tell you Mole came back with a few new members. They're settin' 'em up downtown as we speak."

"Right. Yeah, ok. Thanks," Max said in a hurry as she abruptly tried to bypass him. And he annoyingly took a step in her way, bringing her to a halt once again.

"And where are you off to in such a hurry," Alec asked with a bemused twinkle in his eye, his voice slightly taunting. She grunted slightly in frustration.

"_Nowhere_, now can you get out of my way," she growled, and roughly shoved him aside with her free hand. She finally slung her pack over her shoulder as she stomped passed him. Alec stumbled only two steps before he spun around and was half-jogging, half-skipping at her side.

"Hot date with your non-boyfriend, huh," Alec prodded lightly, and Max nearly had the mind to throttle him right there.

"No," she snapped shortly. Just thinking about Logan made her blood boil twofold. She was right at the peak of her heat-cycle, and thinking of the only man she truly wanted, and could never touch gave her an itch that she couldn't scratch out. "I'm going out with Cindy," Max offered sharply, hoping it would get Alec off her back.

"Oh yeah? Where to," Alec asked instantly, and with an exasperated huff, Max stopped walking. They were just outside Command Central now, and she turned wild eyes onto her leading officer, and begrudging friend. She wanted to lie to him, but she was so agitated she couldn't think of anything quick enough, and just wanted this damn conversation to be over.

"New club in Sector 4. Sounds like they're acting friendly toward our kind. Thought I might check it out," Max said quickly, a bit of a bite in her voice (though from rashness, not hostility).

"Oh yeah? Well, why don't I uhh, meet you there? You might need backup. And besides, I could use the night off, too," Alec offered with nothing but friendly camaraderie in his voice.

"See, it's kinda a girl's thing tonight, and-" Max had started to cattily protest, but Alec wasn't listening.

"Great, I'll meet you there," he said, clapping a hand on her shoulder before he walked off, leaving her stunned and deflated in his wake.

So here she was, putting on a fancy dress and glamorous heels to go meet up with OC, Alec, and whomever else that idiot decided to bring to the party. OC hadn't minded in the least bit, but Max really didn't want that pain in the ass screwing with her tonight when she was trying to find a good lay.

"What's the problem, Boo? You know he and Sketchy are gonna be lookin' for some fine honnies almost as hard as I am. He won't even pay any attention to you. Besides, when has pretty-boy ever tried to stand in your way with Logan? I don't think he's gonna cockblock you suga'," OC had said, once they met up at her place- _Max's_ old place. OC hadn't gotten a new roommate; said it didn't feel right.

"_That isn't the point!" _Max had snapped. She was hostile enough that OC turned around from putting her earrings in, bewildered eyes taking Max in. Max seemed to catch herself then, and let out a frustrated sigh, as she turned around and crossed her arms. "I just know he's going to make fun of me for whatever sorry sap I decide to jump tonight," Max grumbled out, but even to her, she sounded lame.

"Uh huh," Original Cindy said, and finished putting her earrings in. Nothing more was said, and they left after that. Just as OC had predicted, Alec had invited Sketchy, and another X5 from home whose name was Grenade. It wasn't hard for the guys to find the place, since it was new, and had a line about a quarter-mile long. Every hipster and liberalist in the city was likely outside, as well as a few other transgenics the group recognized from the X-series. The moment they entered the club, Max was on the prowl. They all had a few drinks together to start the night, but Max's eyes were constantly scanning the crowd, her attention only half-invested in the conversations of her friends.

It wasn't long before they all split up from the small table to venture into the club. It was dark, lit by black lights and blue hues. Things glowed, highlighting certain people like beacons to Max. The tables only lined the sides of the establishment, the bar against two of the walls. In between were two platforms completely free for dancing; one elevated a few feet from the other by two steps and a railing, in case some drunken idiot decided to fall. There was an upstairs too, but Max had no interest in it as she sauntered onto the dance-floor with her drink. Some punk-trance music was blaring around them, enough to nearly hurt a transgenic's hearing if they didn't check their eardrums down.

Finally she found a man who peaked her interest. He had dark hair and blue eyes, human but well built for his kind. They talked a little over the loud music, before making their way back to the dance floor. Her veins were on fire already, and she almost wanted to skip the foreplay and drag the poor sucker home, but she didn't want to ditch OC too soon. They started to dance, and it was fine, but felt slightly awkward, so she downed the rest of her drink, and then whatever was left over of his. As they moved together, she glanced around for her friends. They all seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves.

Sketchy was with Alec, chatting up a few human girls who were none the wiser with their inebriated asses, giggling at whatever those morons said. OC currently had a punk-ass hottie snatched against the wall, and Max had to smile at the not-so-innocent necking they were currently doing. And Grenade was on the dance floor, just as she, with someone Max couldn't make out from this distance, but didn't care to as she spun around and came to face her partner. She grinded against his leg, the alcohol finally starting to kick in, and through new eyes she looked at the man in her arms.

He seemed nice, but plain to her. It briefly made her wonder if Logan had forever poisoned her from finding any who might be worthy of her, of getting anything going in her besides her own fucked up genetic make-up. It deflated her enough that she wanted another drink. Their dance ended just as the beat switched up, and Max took two more shots of Tequila at the bar. She turned around and smiled at the man, ready to take another shot on the dance floor when he said he had to go to the restroom. She sunk back against the bar, and ordered a third shot just when Alec slid up with his own empty drink.

"Hey, Maxie. How's your night goin'," Alec said charmingly, holding a finger up to motion the bartender to refill his shot-glass as well. When he looked back at Max, she was glaring at him with a flat look. His brows flickered up for a brief moment in one of those looks, before he grabbed his new shot.

"That bad, huh? Well how 'bout a dance?" he asked absently, before he cocked his head back and took the whole gulp in one smooth go. She continued to glare at him as she grabbed her own shot without looking. When his glinting green eyes settled on her again, they narrowed slightly.

"What? It's just one dance," he grunted. She smiled condescendingly at him.

"I didn't think you could dance, Alec," she yelled over the music, before she downed her own shot in a similar fashion. He scoffed at her.

"Can you?" Immediately, Max's eyes flared with a determined glint at the challenge he gave her. She set the glass down on the table as Alec left money on the surface, before she grabbed his wrist _hard _and dragged him out with her. Both their heads were finally swimming with enough alcohol to make them forget anything else but their new game, and just as they stepped foot into the crowd, a new song began playing.

Max reached back with her other hand, ensnaring Alec's other wrist in her grip, and yanked him into her backside. With a grunt at the impact, Alec quickly caught himself as Max wasted no time in swaying her hips against him at the vivacious beat. She still had a vice grip over his arms as she worked her ass into his pelvis, but he moved his hands to snake around her slender stomach and the top of her right thigh. It surprised him she didn't knock him upside the head for it, but he quickly didn't care as he finally caught up and started to twist his hips against her, meeting her movements in perfect synchronization.

_Finally_, Max felt that fire she'd been waiting for; the one that sweetened the embers already jolting her veins. Her hazy mind nearly forgot whom she was dancing with, as a moan left her to drown out in the music. She tipped her head back into Alec's shoulder as her arms came up to ensnare his neck, and she closed her eyes as his hands explored the front of her body. All the while, their bodies grinded into each other, moved against one another, and swayed with each other in the perfect sin. The friction was so blissful, Alec lost his awareness and dipped his head into the curve of her neck, breathing her sweat and pheromones in deeply.

They were lost in their own world, and as the beat grew heavier, so did their movements. They pressed into one another harder, Alec's greedy hands sliding over her silk dress without any heed to the consequences, as Max's dropped to grip onto his thighs so she could keep him rutted tightly against her. Before he knew it, she spun on him, and knocked him back with genetically enhanced strength until he slammed into the wall. She was right on him, pressing her front into him, their legs tangled as one straddled the other. The beat slowed for a brief moment, giving them both a chance to look at the other wildly. Brown and green irises had diminished, both their pupils blown wide in lust and need. They were panting slightly as they searched the other's face, lost and hopeful looks mingled with fear and confusion dancing across their eyes and facial features. They were covered in thin layers of sweat from the close quarters and suffocating pressure of the crowd.

Max had never looked at Alec this way before, and Alec had never really given thought to Max – well, maybe once, but she had turned out to be a bitch and he lost interest. But _now_, now they couldn't stop staring into each other's eyes. _'Holy fuck…what am I doing'_ Max thought, but she didn't process it once the beat picked up again. Instantly, they were right back to thrusting into one another, wild hands grappling for any part of the other to bring them closer, force the pressure where they were connected harder. Their timing was so perfect, that every moment felt increasingly amazing to the last, the friction never letting up, the movements fluid and unstoppable.

Before he could stop himself, Alec had his hands around Max's rear, and Max had her hands inching up Alec's shirt to grab at his bare abs. They had developed since the last time she saw him without a shirt on, the one night she caught him coming out of the shower. Strange she had never noticed then how beautiful he was, but now he looked and felt like sex on legs, and a feral look overtook her eyes that he matched unabashed. She didn't know it, but Alec was in a sort of heat too, and the minute traces of wolf DNA running in his veins were quickly pumping territorial need into his instincts.

Who pulled the other first was unregistered by them, but they were suddenly racing up the stairs as fast as they could go, crashing onto the second floor with wild abandonment in search of a more secluded place. It was almost just as crowded up here, but there was less space since it overlooked the floor below. In their desperation, they didn't care as they nearly fought each other into a corner, partially secluded since it was farthest from the bar. This time, Max found herself to be the one with her back pressed heavily into the crease where the two walls met, and Alec was against her like the paint that coated the wall behind her.

Her arms were immediately around his shoulders, and his gripped tightly at her lower back. They grinded against each other a few more times, before Alec's hands dipped lower and he lifted her thighs. She responded by wrapping her legs around his waist tightly, and pulled him flush against her for a moment. For a brief second, they looked at each other hesitantly, as if silently asking the other for permission, but it lasted no longer than that fleeting moment. They knew.

Max's hand reached down to unzip Alec's pants, which he pulled back only long enough for her to free his erection from, before he slammed into her again, slipping passed her panties in one thrust. A deep moan threatened to leave her, which he swallowed to quiet with his own lips. Her fingers snaked into his neck and hair as she greedily accepted the kiss, opening her mouth to dive a lustful tongue into his mouth. He met the appendage with his own, sliding it against hers with practiced fluidity as he himself slowly pumped into her. They didn't care if anyone noticed, completely wrapped up in each other. Their minds were overwhelmed by the scent of the other, the feeling of their tongues dancing with one another, and their bodies grinding into one another wholly. She was so tight, so _warm_; he felt like he was drowning in her, and he couldn't get enough as he groaned into their wanton kiss.

They had no idea how long they were merged, time, place, and why completely lost to them. Alec's movements grew quicker, their kiss needier, hands greedier, lavish and wild like the animals they were trained to be. Bliss brought them to the edge, and shoved them over so harshly, they both nearly screamed into the other's mouth as Max clenched around him, and Alec pressed into her as hard as he could with his release. Their mouths had never broken apart, swallowing each other's noises without shame. Even after they both started to come down from the rush, the continued to deeply kiss, their lips softening against one another as their breathing calmed, until finally, they parted.

Breathing heavily against one another, their foreheads rested together for a moment, eyes closed as if they were afraid to look at one another. Almost at the same time, they dipped their heads up and eyelids slowly peeled back to reveal green and brown still dark with lust. Once their eyes locked, there was a moment of calm study, before it finally hit them both. Whether they were in shock or denial, it didn't matter. Neither said anything, and trained masks of control were up as Max uncurled her legs from Alec's waist. He eased her to her own feet, but stayed where he was as he fixed the front of his pants, zipping himself up before he finally stepped out of her personal space. Once again, their eyes met and they flitted around the other's gaze, both trying to penetrate passed the guarded walls set up before finally, they dropped each other's stare to glare at the floor or their own feet.

_Oh God…what had they just done?!_

**AN: So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Want more? Let me know! Otherwise, I'll never know :D **


	2. Aftermath

They avoided each other the rest of the night. For a little while, they simply pretended the other didn't exist, and stayed at opposite sides of the club, but it got annoying and petty so Alec left rather quickly after that, with only a brief goodbye to Sketchy and Grenade. Since he'd hitched a ride with Grenade in his rebuilt hummer, he had to walk home, and since it wasn't safe for his kind in the Ordinaries' sectors anymore, he used the roofs for the most part to get through. Sneaking over sector gates had never been a problem for him, and they weren't a problem for him now, even if he was still a little drunk.

_'What the fuck was I thinking,'_ he couldn't help but scold himself. He hadn't been thinking; that was the problem. Hormones took over…. _Genetically amped up hormones_ took over, and he went on instinct. _'Bad fucking instinct,'_ he chided himself with a fair amount of venom. Normally, this kind of thing didn't bother him. He wasn't sentimental or very often emotional, but this wasn't his every day hookup.

This was _Max_. His ally, his friend, and if he really had to be honest with himself (though he'd never do so out loud) his fucking _boss_! His feelings might still be too superficial by human standards, but he knew he cared about Max enough to not want to fuck things up in this way. He'd come a long way from his first days out of Manticore, and he could almost proudly admit he'd developed a heart (almost). She was a friend, _that's it!_ And you don't go dicking around with friends. Besides, Maticore had been pretty righteous about physical relations between superior officers and their subordinates, as in they were strictly forbidden; he may have been able to shake the corporation, but not everything had been broken from their training.

It left him unsettled, and while he walked into Terminal City, everything else was a blur. He almost felt nauseas from over-thinking it, but perhaps that was just the liquor. _'Who am I kidding,'_ he bit back, a bit deflated. He could already feel his liver detoxing his veins, and his buzz was wearing off. Curse of the transgenics. When he made it back to his apartment, he was still so lost in thought that he almost didn't notice Joshua still sitting up reading a book. Joshua had gotten used to Alec's presence, and wanted to keep rooming together; the X5 had graciously agreed.

"Max and Alec gettin' busy," Joshua suddenly said, snorting with a hearty, light laugh. It made Alec freeze in his tracks in his way across the room. His head jerked in Joshua's direction to note the dog-man didn't even look up from the pages he was flipping through slowly. Green eyes widened slight in the dimness of the room, but not from the insufficient light their lonely lampshade cast across the under-furnished living room.

"What," Alec bit out with a hollow tone. Joshua looked up from his book with a glazed stare, and tapped his nose a few times.

"Dog in my cocktail," he offered simply, giving his friend a goofy, innocent smile. Alec chuckled nervously, his neck muscles straining a little with the wince he was trying to hide. Of course Joshua could smell Max on him; Joshua could smell _anything_.

"Ooookay," he squeaked out, clearing his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck wearily. Taking a few steps closer to Joshua, he made sure he had the trans-human's full attention before he went on. "Listen, Big Fella… you can't tell _anyone_ about this, ok? I mean like, _no one_. You got it? It's uh…it's a secret! Just you and me, okay?"

Joshua chuckled a little, enjoying Alec's tight grip around his arm, seeing it as a sign of companionship and not the nervous gesture it really was. As insightful as the artist could be, there were some things that truly escaped him. He nodded a few times and grinned a bit wider. "Okay Medium Fella. Joshua and Alec secret," Joshua hummed contently. A small bit of relief crossed Alec's features, and he smiled a little to his good-hearted friend as his grip eased over the thick sweater covering Joshua's hide.

"Right then…Great. I'm gonna go shower," Alec grunted, patting Joshua's shoulder twice. He left the room without another word as Joshua went back to his book. Terminal City was in ruins, but they had been slowly cleaning it up over the last 5 months. Luckily, all the inhabitants had advanced skills and enhanced features from mechanical engineering to grunts with the strength of ten men. It made cleaning up and rebuilding the place a hell of a lot easier, but they were still far from living the civilized life. Still, many apartments had been mended over, and now had running water and power available to them. That didn't mean the places could be heated, but Alec didn't mind cold showers. He actually preferred them being that his blood ran a little hot, and right now, cold was definitely the way to go…

* * *

The next morning, OC woke up to the sound of rustling. Groggily, she stumbled out of her room to see Max slipping into her shoes from the night before. Max still had one or two articles of clothing at her old apartment, so the transgenic was wearing her own jeans and a blouse. She turned around to see her old roommate squinting at her through what was unmistakably a hangover.

"I hope you don't mind I took a bath this morning," Max said softly, gesturing toward their, once, shared bathroom. OC squinted her eyes a little more, and a contemptuous scowl took over her lips.

"Boo…it's only 8 in the morning. Da hell are you off to so early. I thought we could sleep in…have some breakfast before you dashed off to your superwoman duties," her friend griped. Max let a soft smile pass to her friend in place of a laugh. Unfortunately, OC knew her well enough to know something was up by her lackluster.

"Aiight… what's up witchu? You've been a sour puss since last night. We go out to find you an easy squeeze, and _instead_, you cramp on me an' my honey after drinking three times as much as me, which _by the way _is some bull you're a ray of fuckin' sunshine right now minus that Seattle gloom floating in your eyes, an' I feel like a damn train ran over me_, _before draggin' my ass home with both our asses alone. What gives, Boo," OC ranted off quickly, chalk full of her usual attitude. It was enough to cause an actual chuckle to leave Max, before a heavy sigh deflated her shoulders. She sunk forward onto one of the stools sitting at the kitchen counter as OC rounded to the other side to start a pot of coffee for herself.

"I did find someone last night, actually," Max confessed uneasily. It caused a brow to rise on Original Cindy's forehead as she cast a calculating glance up to Max. The transgenic was avoiding her gaze.

"Oh yeah? And how'd you manage that," she murmured as she poured water in over the beans she just poured into the machine. Her brain was still half asleep, so was only half processing her friend's terse words.

"It happened…at the club," Max murmured hesitantly, causing OC to stop what she was doing, eyes shooting up with mirthful amusement. Even with her killer headache and sleepy brain, she couldn't help the sly smile the passed her lips.

"Damn, Sweetie…I knew you were a freak, but I didn't think you were _that _kinky," OC prodded, causing an exasperated groan to leave Max. Cindy chuckled a little while Max let her forearms and head slump into the counter. As she turned to coffee machine on, she asked, "soooo…who was the lucky guy?"

This is where Max seemed to grow the most tense. The woman's entire body stiffened, and she was quiet for a long moment as she sat back up. Her eyes looked everywhere but OC, who waited as patiently as she could, head tilted and eyes never breaking from Max. She was about to snap her fingers in the other girl's face to bring her back to earth when Max took a sharp breath in.

"It was…. Alec," Max said so quietly that OC almost missed it. She was also positive she had heard incorrectly, because there was _no way_ Max said what her brain thought she said.

"_Whaaaat,"_ OC suddenly yelled, as if she were a deaf person that needed a hearing aid. It made Max flinch violently in her chair, her dark eyes finally coming to look at her friend with a bewildered look in them. OC was looking at her just as flabbergasted, and Max crumbled under that stare. She wailed a little with a regretful cry that somehow sounded closer to an incredulous laugh. Her elbows fell into the counter again as her hands found their way into her hair, threading through her long strands of black hair in an attempt to soothe her ridiculously disturbed nerves. It wasn't helping.

"I know," she groaned, eyes glaring at OC's belly button, unseeing, as her friend continued to gawk at her. "I don't know what the fuck I was thinking."

"You weren't thinking, that's what," OC immediately said, nodding at Max like she was stuck between feeling pity or reprimanding scrutiny for her friend. Max covered her face with her hands and shook her head against them in disbelief.

"What am I gonna do? I have to see him every day, and _Logan, _oh God! Two years. _Two years _I've managed to be good because of that damn journalist, and then I choose _that _asshole to mess it all up! It was supposed to be someone I'd never see again. I _just_ told Logan a few months ago that there had never really been anything going on between me and Alec, and now-" Max groaned out as her hands flopped lifelessly to the counter. OC's lips turned into a sympathetic frown at one end.

"Hey. You know Pretty Boy ain't the kind to sweat it over that stuff. I'm sure it'll be like nothin' happened, Boo. And Logan doesn't need to know…it's not like you guys are _together_ together…never have been, right?" OC's optimistic words were accompanied by a steaming pot of coffee she offered to her friend. Max frowned hopefully up at OC as she accepted the mug. She supposed OC had a point. Logan and her, whatever they had, had always been a confusing twister that never really ended anywhere concrete. Maybe she could just sweep this under the rug.

"You think," she asked as her fingers curled around the warm ceramic. OC gave a half-hearted shrug as if to say why not. Then, the mocha woman's eyes narrowed curiously.

"So did anyone catch you guys…?"

"No! I mean…I don't think so," Max responded quickly, blinking a bit as she glared at the counter distantly. "I don't really know…"

"That good, huh," OC chided, her voice a mixture of skepticism and amusement.

"Shut up."

* * *

An hour later, and Max was back in Terminal City, after picking up some more gasoline for the generator. Her heart was thundering slightly as she marched into Command Central, but she willed it to calm as the normal bustle of the usual suspects buzzed around her. It had started to feel like home, and a lazy smile passed over her lips as she watched Mole boss around Dix and a few others to get their lazy asses working on something or other. The complacency lasted only a few seconds before she caught sight of the one face she wasn't ready to see. Her heart skipped a beat as Alec caught her gaze at the same time, something sparking behind them she couldn't identify.

"Hey," Max said cheekily as they slowly came to stop in front of one another, several feet of protective personal space between them.

"Hey," Alec said back, just as awkwardly. It was weird to feel the dynamic between them shift so drastically, and over something so simple as sex. Perhaps Max was different, but he had been _trained _for it to not mean anything. It was the protocol of their breeding program, diminishing the act to a near objective science. Not that he didn't still enjoy it, but it didn't mean much to him. Now though, he felt almost out of place in the wake of it, like there was something _wrong_… and maybe it was just the way Max was looking at him right now. Beady eyes, sullen jaw, cautiously leaning back as if she was ready for him to pounce on her again.

"Well, this is awkward," he tried lightly, smirking an almost cheesy grin that, for a second, got her to huff out a laugh. Her smile quickly fell though, and her eyes glanced to his shoes for a second before she looked into his eyes again.

"Look, Alec…"

"It was a mistake, I know," he murmured quietly, fists held together in front of his lap in a reserved way. Max seemed relieved as her shoulders slumped into a relaxed slouch.

"Yes! Oh, God, yes. Thank you," she breathed in gratitude, and he smiled the carefree smile he always had. They both nodded.

"Hormonal impulses…saucy drinks. Just, bad all around. Can't happen again," he stated dryly, shaking his head slightly. Max joined him, wholeheartedly agreeing.

"Best to just forget it every happened," Max said, this time nodding her head like a dumb bobble head. He nodded once in agreement, before the stone of his face broke. His cheeks scrunched up a little, and his lips peeled back to bare his teeth to her in a rueful grimace.

"See….the only thing is…I can't stop thinking about it," he drawled, confessing his last words hurriedly. He stiffened slightly, a hesitant look in his twinkling eyes as Max looked at him for a moment, looking utterly petrified. Then, her shoulders deflated again, but for a completely different reason.

"I can't either," she muttered back, utterly dumbstruck. He let a noncommittal huff of a dry laugh out, and nodded his head dumbly.

"Guess we know why we were paired as breeding partners now, huh," Alec said, chuckling lightly with a breath of nervousness lightening his tone. His grin instantly turned into a morose grit of teeth at the irate and horrified look Max gave him.

"GROSS, _Alec_," Max groaned, a grimace twisting her face with a slight shake of her head to rid herself of _that_ foul thought. Luckily, there weren't too many people around to eavesdrop on them, and the morning bustle of work was loud enough that, should anyone be trying, they wouldn't really get anything unless they were _really _trying. Regardless, Alec's eyes clenched shut as his face contorted disapprovingly as well.

"I know, I know," he grumbled hurriedly, "bad joke."

"_Ugh_, I cannot **_believe_** I let you trick me into getting into my pants," Max snarled out before she could stop herself, her anger spiking at his perverted ways. She also couldn't handle the bitter taste that the reminder of her time back at Manticore put in her mouth.

Something changed in Alec instantly. His companionable discomfort turned into stone cold malice. The glint in his sage eyes became virulent, and if Max didn't know any better, she'd say a flash of hurt shot through them. But that was impossible. She didn't have much time to analyze it as Alec's jaw's clenched angrily, and he advanced on her quickly. His hand grabbed around the back of her neck and pulled her toward him forcefully, quick enough that she brought one of her own fists up to brace against his chest instinctively, _just _in case he had any other impish ideas. But he only pulled her close enough so their faces were a half-foot apart and she was forced to stare into nothing but vicious green.

"Hey, _don't do that_," he snapped at her. Whatever she wanted to say, he could hear how her heartbeat picked up being pulled so close to him, in anticipation of what her veins were pumping for. He knew because his were doing the same damn thing. "I may be the asshole you make me out to be. You're probably right. I _am _a monster of Manticore, after all," he drawled on, his voice quieter, but no less dangerous than before, "but don't play the victim here. Don't act like you didn't want it or didn't enjoy it, because I didn't hear any protests from you last night _Max_."

"And, you know what? It was all well and good making me out to be the bad guy when you were only _pretending _to screw me," Alec snarled on, his tone turning exceptionally rancid when he spoke of how Max used him to push Logan away, "but now that it's actually happened… I'm not gonna be the only one to take a bullet for it." The moment he snapped the word _'it', _he released her neck with a soft shove, before he stormed forward and slammed his shoulder into her roughly to get by. With a furious grunt, she twisted against the blow, stumbling over her side two steps before her furious eyes trailed after Alec as he stalked away with the ferocity of a bloodthirsty animal.

Of course, he was right. And that only made her hate him so much more. She was fuming where she stood, her muscles clenched so tightly and wanting to hurl at something, that when Mole came up to her and uttered her name, she spun on him with the intent to thrash him. She caught herself when she recognized his scaly face, and he jolted back half a step at the vicious look in her eye, blinking with inquiry dancing in his yellow eyes.

"What," she snapped with more hostility than she meant to. Mole hesitated a moment, glaring from tiny Max before his gaze flickered up to Alec's retreating form as he left the building through the foggy back door. His eyes settled back on Max with a reserved scrutiny.

"We need to talk about how we're going to deal with our own law," he groused plainly. "You know I don't really care for the Ordinaries or their practices, but a few of the supply runs have ended in bloodshed from our hands, and not all our residents are as cuddly as me," the mutant sneered facetiously. Max knew what he was referring to of course. Some of the transgenics were rather volatile, even toward their own kind, and the lawless way of the land for TC needed to draw to a close. It was no longer every one out for themselves; they had a community now, and they needed to establish their own rules of conduct. Luckily, they didn't have to share those theologies with the racist police, but it was still going to take awhile to get the resistant residents of their new sector to comply. After all, they all hated rules and regulations now, thanks to Manticore and the freedom they now possessed.

"Right," Max said, the bite gone from her voice. Now, she just sounded tired, but Mole didn't care as he grunted and handed a few papers off to her to sort through. She sighed a little as he stalked off, and out the door, likely after Alec. If they were going to solve the constitution rules of TC, they were going to need all the core members of their establishment to sit in on it. That meant Alec too. _'Great. Just what I fucking need,' _she thought bitterly, as her name was once again called by someone else. Twisting around, she looked up to see Dix looking down at her from his elevated tech station.

"Logan's on the video feed. Says he needs to talk to you," Dix said cheerily, smiling as he fidgeted from one foot to the other. _'Just what I fucking need,'_ she snapped to herself with even more anger behind her inner voice.

xxxxx

**AN: So I got a little more from my muse for this story today. Hope you guys liked it! Seriously though, review and let me know. I won't know if I need improving if no one tells me! Any thoughts or suggestions are encouraged and appreciated. I want you guys to enjoy reading it as much as I'm having fun writing it! So hit me up :D Have a good weekend. Ciao guys**


	3. Formulation

Ames White had dealt with a rough few months. After the fiasco with the Phalanx five months prior, the faith the Conclave had in him had waned. Problematic for an egomaniac like himself. He hadn't lost everything yet, but he was getting close, and that made him irate and bloodthirsty. He was going to rip 452 apart, watch her world crumble around her with satisfaction until he had the pleasure of taking her life with his own bare hands. He made this promise to himself as whole-heartedly as he gave himself over to the Coming.

He turned away from his dark thoughts when the door to his current office quarters opened. A young blonde strut in with a captivating sway in her hips. Briefly, White's eyes glanced over her curvaceous form, and she smiled at him knowingly before she handed off the folder in her hands to him. He accepted it wordlessly, dark eyes sizing her up, before he finally took in the results she'd handed him.

"Excellent. Thank you, Lily," he said. She nodded to him with that same smile, before leaving him to his thoughts. It was the results of X5-398; he had passed the trial all Conclave members were put through, just as the others. Since discovering the possibility that all transgenics were immune to the virus, they had been running more tests, infecting X2s, 3s, 5s, 6s, and even the 7s. So far, thirty had undergone the poisoning, and all had survived. Varying grades of symptoms were spotted in each, but all survived the night. _'This is not good,'_ Ames though, cursing his father's heresy. It certainly didn't help the Conclave's trust him any better. They only needed three more test subjects before there was no doubt that the transgenics were 100% immune, through and through. Since he was fairly positive it would pan out that way, he was already formulating a solution for it. After he disposed of X5-398, he would spend the rest of the day finalizing his plans.

* * *

"Tell him I'm not here," Max whispered hoarsely to Dix. Unfortunately, he didn't have ultra sensitive hearing as the X5s did, and he furrowed his brows at her confusedly and shook his head a little. _'What' _he mouthed to her, and she hissed out the words again. He caught them wrong, and twisted back around to the monitor.

"She says she'll be right there," he incorrectly reported, causing Max to snarl out a low, abrupt, "_No!"_ But it was too late, and the damage was already done. She let out a heavy breath, shoulders slumping in defeat as her nerves crawled to a definitive nausea. For a moment, she felt frozen, until her body started to react for her. She felt herself climbing up the metal steps to Dix's little den of techno-crap, heart throbbing in her throat and stomach doing flips.

"Hey," she managed to say normally, surprising herself when a smile came to her face just as easily. She still felt like melting into a pile of embarrassment, but Logan smiled back comfortably. Though she could always tell there was a hint of sorrow in his looks, that was normal for them, so there was no reason for her to focus on it now…no reason to feel guilty over it…

"What do you need," she heard herself say. Her mind was fuzzy, and she felt like she was acting on autopilot because all of her conscious focus was on swallowing her heartbeat back into her chest.

"I found a bit more about the Conclave's involvement in Manticore. Turns out this breeding cult has been around a lot longer than we first thought…I found that symbol of theirs in hieroglyphs dating all the way back to ancient Egypt. I think their endgame is something way different than Manticore…might even be that Manticore was just a pawn of something else," Logan said in his factual way. It made the unease in Max's gut quell in light of the implication.

"So how is Sandeman involved?"

"Well, we know he left the Conclave to save his son. Could be he went to Manticore to try and stop them, and maybe the Conclave put spies in Manticore to keep an eye on him, or steal his research. Truth is, we won't know until we find him. It was a while back this all happened," Logan responded to her, and Max nodded. She pushed up from the table she was leaning on in preparation to go, but Logan spoke up again to stop her. "That's not all I called about, though. I think I found someone who can finish Dr. Engel's work on the cure. Was wondering if you could stop by to drop off some blood samples this afternoon," Logan said hopefully. It made Max's veins freeze with dread and remorse. For a moment, she didn't know what to say, and Logan clearly found that to be odd since his brows furrowed slightly.

"Max?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," she blurted out before she could stop herself. Logan's confusion only rose, and a frown twisted at his lips.

"I don't understand. I thought you'd be happy about this," he said, and the hurt in his voice made her heart wrench.

"I am!" she defended brashly, before her face softened a little. "Of course I am. It's just… there's a lot going on here right now, and with everything- I just don't know if I can sneak away so quickly…." she offered dully, a small pout at her lips that Logan couldn't force himself to be mad at. She tried for a small smile to him, as she added, "But I'll come by as soon as I can."

He nodded to that, and they gave each other a bittersweet goodbye before the monitor suddenly became absent of his face. The woman slumped against the railings, a horrible pit swelling like a blowfish in her gut. '_What the hell have I done,'_ she thought bleakly, before the rush of soldiers and clattering metal around her tore her out of her gloom. Right. She still had duties to get through, and reluctantly, she descended back into Command Central to organize her people….and her thoughts.

* * *

Alec knew a part of Max hated him. She hated him for all he reminded her of. Killing her brother, for one thing. All the evils of Manticore, for another. After all, he was the one they sent to break the news of Logan's virus to her, and he had lost the cure for her in exchange for his own life. He was a never-ending thorn in her side. She still thought he was a cold-blooded killer sometimes, and it wasn't like he hadn't been before she found him, so how could he blame her? He hated the darkness in him too; he just wished-

Alec spun around the moment he felt someone approach too closely to his back, whiplashing his thoughts far from his mind. He stilled when he saw Mole looking down on him curiously, and slowly, the X5 let his tension slip away. The two stood quietly for a moment, glaring hard into each other's eyes as they sized one another up. It was an animal thing, hardwired into their very DNA by the monsters who created them.

"Meeting in ten," Mole practically snarled around his cigar. Alec sneered a little, a disbelieving huff of a laugh leaving him.

"Right," he murmured, holding Mole's gaze with a rough glare of his own. After a drawn out moment, they both dropped the charade and laughed a little. Mole clasped Alec on the shoulder, and turned to leave before Alec asked, "hey, have you seen Grenade around this morning?"

Faltering, Mole turned a smidgen to look back at Alec, before shaking his head. "Haven't seen 'em since last night."

"Right…" Alec repeated as Mole stalked off, and the boy glanced around him skeptically. Instincts kicked in, setting a familiar sense of forboding into Alec's limbs. He instantly pulled out his phone and dialed Sketchy's number. The line rang several times before a groggy voice mumbled into his ear.

"Yeah," Sketchy moaned, causing Alec to chuckle a little, his brows furrowing at his friend's tone.

"How many drinks did you have last night," Alec asked bemusedly.

"Ugh, I don't even want to get into it," came the mumbled response.

"Hey, listen. Did Grenade leave with you last night," Alec asked after taking a moment to compose himself. He heard some rustling on the other line, and a few groans before Sketchy responded.

"No. He left with this smokin' hot blonde chick. I'm sure he's still gettin' it in, if you know what I mean," his friend said, with a few hearty chuckles, causing Alec to snort.

"Of course I know. You just said it….look, can you do me a favor? Swing by the club as soon as you're able to stand, check to see if his car is still there? He hasn't been home yet, and I haven't heard from him."

"Sure thing, my man. I'll hit you back once I scope it out," Sketchy said, a bit more lively.

"Thanks," Alec said, just as a beep clicked between the line. He lowered his phone and stared at it a moment, brows furrowing pensively, before he closed it and stuffed it into his pocket.

* * *

The meeting took awhile to get started. None of them were used to diplomacy or democracy, and though Max and Alec had taken the lead of the group, they still encouraged freedom of speech. That made things a bit messy, and it was hard to make sense of all the chatter going on all at once. Finally, Max showed up, and after a little coaxing, she managed to get the others to simmer down and listen.

For some reason, she was acutely aware of Alec's eyes on her. Even not looking at him, she could feel the shifting green of his irises boring into her skull, causing heat to rise against her skin. Clearing her throat a little, she looked everywhere but him, to begin with.

"So…where are we at," she asked informally. She was never really big on structure and manners, so she saw no need to delve into that now more than absolutely necessary. Her eyes finally landed on Alec, and she saw something in her gaze that caused an immediate flutter in her heart. Hunger. It nearly made her jerk in her seat, and an uninvited thought dawned on her, which made the suggestion Joshua just proposed go fuzzy in her memory.

Without her consent, her hand lifted from her lap to dance two fingers atop her left breast. No one seemed to notice how Alec's eyes immediately dropped to the digits, that took their time to tease a line up her collarbone, but she did. And she couldn't stop herself as her fingers danced across her sternum agonizingly slow, barely caressing her own skin through her shirt, until she gripped ahold of the necklace she wore, only to twirl the charm suggestively between her thumb and pointer finger. Alec tracked the movements with predation in every bit of his demeanor, eyes glinting dangerously as he subconsciously licked his bottom lip. She felt her breath almost hitch at the subtle movement, but a sharp voice jerked her out of the hypnosis.

"Public Corporal Punishment should do the trick," Mole snarled back, slamming his palms down on the table to accentuate his aggressive plan. Max blinked a bit out of her stupor, and her brows furrowed.

"We're not animals," Max quipped back, although with the tension thick between her and Alec, she found the statement a bit hypocritical the moment it left her mouth. Ignoring _that _thought, she tried to calm her throbbing heart to formulate a coherent response, but somehow, her thumb found it's way up to the base of her neck. Without knowing why she did it, the digit curled and pulled her collar down forcefully so she could stroke the skin beneath her clavicle with a lazy rhythm, back and forth.

"Corporal Punishment is a bit extreme, not to mention will do nothing but make the rest of the population distrust us. We're not here to be cruel to each other, just as everyone else has been," Max said forcefully, ignoring everyone's glare on her save for Mole. The lizard man growled a little, but slumped down a bit to drop his offensive posture.

"What about Psy-Ops?" Dix suddenly piped up.

"_Excuse me_," Alec snapped back, his eyes for the first time tearing away from Max to glare at the X2. Shock, more than anything was evident in the boy's features, a hint of disbelieving agitation coating his words that made Dix flinched slightly. He blinked at Alec for a moment, unsure if he should continue on with his suggestion.

"Well…you know. We have some residents that were in the Psy-Ops program. We could have them reprogram the trouble-makers to-"

"_NO!" _Alec snarled so venomously, it stopped Dix in his tracks with fear. The mutant's mouth shut abruptly, and he flinched backward into Joshua when Alec took a threatening step forward. Joshua growled lowly to grab Alec's attention, but the X5 didn't break his feral glare from Dix. He did, however, compose himself otherwise. When he spoke next, his voice was much calmer than before, but no less authoritative; "we're not brainwashing people Manticore style to fit what we need them to be."

"O-okay! Sorry Alec. It was just a suggestion," Dix said, leaning a bit more into Joshua until the X5 backed down and turned away from him.

"Alec's right. We can't think like Manticore anymore, guys," Max said soothingly, looking from Dix to Alec calculatingly. Her fingers had gone back to rolling her charm between them to provide a distraction from the tension. "Before we set up punishment, we should set the rules of conduct for our Freak Nation. We'll make them public, then issue a warning for those who've broken the law. If it happens again, then we throw 'em in the slammer," Max finally provided. Mole was the first one to sneer at her and turn a snarky glare her way.

"And how is that not thinking like Manticore?" he hissed, even more against imprisonment than he was against Psy-Ops. X2s had been the ones to be locked up forever in the dark, so it held more sensitivity to him than the brainwashing techniques. Although he had experienced them too, it was nothing compared to what the higher classes of X-breeds went through. Max gave the lizard man a steady glare back.

"I let you all out, and some of us…granted, no one at this table right now, but some of our kind shouldn't have been released. The freedom we have is a gift that _I _gave us, and if they can't act civilized, then they don't deserve that gift. Unless they deserve the privilege, lock-up seems the best option, until they learn to behave. That's the difference. It's not a permanent sentence, and it's not exile. Just a time out," Max explained, her voice peppy with optimism. It rubbed Mole the wrong way, and he grumbled agitatedly at her, chewing more violently on his cigar. She ignored him as she went on, "I saw a jail toward the east side. We can begin fortifying it to hold our own once we settle on the new rules."

"Rules. No rules pretty whack. Need discipline," Joshua hummed a bit sadly. Max smiled in understanding.

"That's right, Big Fella. But don't worry; it won't be like Manticore. I promise," Max said soothingly, reaching out to squeeze her friend's arm, who smiled at her appreciatively. Her eyes glanced across the table, and her smile fell off her face. Alec was staring at the table, a palpable darkness having set around him, sucking him in to leave a deadened shell in front of her. Then, he turned a left the table without a word, slipping away so quietly, no one noticed as Mole took over the conversation again.

"Right…rules," the X2 growled, "Anybody got a pen?"

"You guys get started on that. I'll be right back," Max said distractedly, before she rose from her chair and jogged off. Those left counseling only looked after her for a brief moment, some not glancing at all, before they became immersed in the conversation and forgot all about their two leaders. Max felt the cool dewy air of Seattle ripen her lungs the moment she made it outside. Her breath left in foggy huffs as she looked around for Alec, and found him retreating quickly down the street. Breaking out into a jog to catch up to him, she called out for him, but didn't get him to stop until she grabbed him roughly by his shoulder. He spun around with an annoyed scowl on his face.

"Hey. What's wrong," she asked, only letting a minute trace of aggravation cross her features when he shoved her hand off him roughly. He was still clearly upset, and it didn't help that his hormones were on a rampage at her subtle display of sexuality. Alec knew she had been doing it on purpose. What he didn't know was _why_ she was doing it, or why the fuck he found such an insignificant gesture so hot in the first place. Nuances like that never got him so riled up in the past. It put him in a mood where he wasn't keen on talking, especially to _her_.

"Nothing, Max. Back off," he bit, shifting his weight back to twirl on her and keep hiking away. She caught his shoulder again and spun him back just as fiercely as before, causing his anger to only grow.

"Alec," she said seriously, her eyes determined but compassionate, "Tell me about Psy-Ops."


	4. Anger and Mysteries

**AN: Wow guys! Thank you so much to all of you who have reviewed so far. Your encouragement keeps me inspired to keep going, and my oh my have you guys inspired me with this chapter! So thank you so much, and I hope I did you guys justice so you'll all keep with me through this to see where it goes! Now, if you're up for it, listen to Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Mix)by Rob Dougan while you read this chapter. This is the song I just played over and over again while I wrote it, so I guess it suits the chapter (especially the last segment). So without further adieu, here you go guys!**

**Also, minor warning for needles in this one. It's not that big of a scene, and it's nothing horrific, but if you have problems with that, you've been warned to expect it!**

xxxx

"Why would you ask me that," Alec questioned lowly, his voice full of defensive hostility.

"C'mon, Alec; it's not hard to figure out. You only got like this once Dix brought up Psy-Ops. Must have been pretty terrible to get you to react like this," Max said, her tone turning slightly challenging while she crossed her arms under her chest. "So…what happened?"

He smiled at her then, but there was nothing happy about it. There wasn't even a trace of his usual sarcasm or mockery. This smile was just bitter, cold, and _angry_. Maybe trying to challenge him wasn't the right approach…

"Which time would you like to know about? The time when we were nine, and you and your little brothers and sisters made a break for it, leaving your twins to take the fall? They locked us up in Psy-Ops for six months to make sure we weren't a liability," Alec said quietly. His smooth voice sounded so calm, it almost masked the dark growl that rumbled in his throat with each word, anger teetering on the verge of murderous as he took a single step closer to Max. Instinctually, she took a step back and circled around his side to get a better vantage point, but he followed her like a magnet dancing around it's opposite.

"Or the time I failed my mission, and they punished me for two months for falling in love with Rachel," he snarled a bit louder, and Max flinched at the words. She knew he had loved Rachel, but he'd never admitted it straight to her face, and the way he said it – with so much bitter malice behind the words, it made her heart bleed for him.

"Or how about…" he suddenly whispered as he stepped into her, fully invading her personal space. She hadn't realized until it was too late that he had effectively cornered her back against the shambled brick wall lining one edge of the alley they had somehow slipped in to. His voice was eerily quiet when he continued, "When they brought Ben back. After _you_ snapped his neck, and they did an autopsy on him. They threw me back in Psy-Ops for another six months…just to make sure I couldn't be pushed to the same recklessness."

Max couldn't take her eyes off of him, horror, disbelief, and shame written in every inch of her face. She wanted to scream, run away, or beat him down out of an instinctual fear that those words boiled up in her gut. The implication was too much, the _accusatory_ glare in his unwavering sage eyes drowning her beneath the stark color. If he had been locked up after Ben was returned to Manticore, then that meant he had been in Psy-Ops up until _right _before he'd been assigned as her breeding partner.

"You never told me that," she whispered so quietly, it suggested she was suddenly afraid of her own voice. He sneered at her, never letting up an inch from her, never letting his glare waver from her, not even to blink.

"Yeah well, maybe I was trying to protect you, Max," he said slowly. The truth was, Alec hadn't been able to tell her about it when they were first assigned together; it was against the reprogramming. After that, they had been estranged frenemies, and it wasn't like it had mattered anymore. Then, she told him about Ben, and once that was out in the open between them, there was no reason for him to burden her guilty conscious further. Now though, he had to clench his fists at his sides just to keep from punching her, and his own fucked up head found the sickest pleasure in the verbal stabbing he gave her. He watched it play out over her face, and he hated the way he reveled in it, this twisted defense mechanism he had. _'Still a monster,' _he thought, but what the fuck did it matter?

"I'm sorry," she whispered, fighting the tear that threatened to slip over her eyelash.

"No you're not. Not yet, because you _still _don't understand. But you know what? I'm not giving you the privilege of understanding because you're just playing games with me," Alec said chidingly. Max snapped back to herself, her defensive walls rising around her, and she tensed up where she stood. Anger flashed in her eyes, and she pulled her fists up at her sides in preparation for a fight.

"What the fuck, Alec," she spat, clearly irate over the accusation. Here she was just trying to help this asshole, actually _sympathizing_ with him despite his bitterness, and he was shoving it in her face. Just like the old Alec, before their heart-to-hearts and camaraderie-building battles.

"Oh come on, Max. Do you really take me for that much of an imbecile," he sneered, and she gave a noncommittal shrug of admittance. He laughed bitterly at that, and dipped his chin a little lower to hover closer to her cheeks that his lips danced around, as if considering whether to take a bite out of her or not. His eyes narrowed before he said, "you mean to tell me that little show you put on was for everyone? Or just me?"

She could feel his hot breath against her skin when he spoke, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose like the hackles of a dog. She could push him away if she wanted; she _should_ push him away, but her body wasn't listening. It acted against her in every way imaginable, heating up against the body heat he radiated, so close to her she could brush against him if she tilted forward but a single inch. But they weren't touching, just hovering, and it was maddening to her. Her throat had gone dry, and her heartbeat was hammering in her ears, quicker and quicker. She felt faint and wired all at the same time, and she had to swallow heavily before she was able to find her voice again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she whispered hoarsely. Her skin prickled with goose bumps as he leaned a little closer, and she shrunk back against the wall to try and keep what little barrier was left. His lips came to hover just above her ear, skin so close she could nearly feel their softness against her lobe.

"You wanna lie to me Max, that's fine. Just make sure you're not lying to yourself," he whispered roughly into her ear, the deep drag of his voice shooting goose bumps straight down the length of her neck. She would have shivered beneath him if she hadn't bit down on her own tongue to quell the sensation. It was harder to keep the noise clawing it's way up her throat at bay when he tilted his head a little to bring his nose to scantly brush across her cheek in a teasing, almost tender way.

"Do yourself a favor," he murmured against her skin, before he finally pulled back from her enough to look at her. Their gazes locked for a moment, and Alec's nostrils flared a little at the intoxicating scent of her growing arousal. His jaw clenched for a moment when she gave him that defiant look, every fiber of her fighting what her instincts told her she wanted. It was magnificent, but he was still too angry to succumb to her bullshit and let her get away with it. In the blink of an eye, he took a step away from her and reached across his chest to grab her right shoulder, before he shoved her off the wall and out of the alleyway. "Fuck off," he snapped as she stumbled a few feet. When she whipped around to face him, eyes wide and mouth agape in shock, he glared back at her stubbornly.

Her blood boiled beneath the surface, the only thing keeping her from lashing out at him with claws and teeth being the stupor her brain was still stuck in because of his roller-coaster behavior.

"Take the rest of the day off, Alec. Clear your head," she snapped pointedly, voice suddenly cold and authoritative. He smirked at her, and suddenly stood rigid before her, hand coming up to give her a mocking salute.

"Yes, Ma'am!" And it took everything she had to glare at him calmly, turn away and not look back as she stalked back toward Command Central without him. His smile fell immediately, a glower darkening his face, before he turned away from her and stormed off into the alleyway.

* * *

When Max returned to Command, her mind was miles away. She couldn't concentrate on the meeting as Mole argued for Ordinaries to be banned from Terminal City, and Joshua advocated for visitation rights for the well-behaved friends they had. She couldn't comment when Dix brought up thievery, or when an X6 spoke on violence regulations. There were just too many other things on her mind. Alec was acting like a freak with hardwiring issues, a loose gasket about to fucking blow. Logan was ready to try for the cure again, which she wanted. _Oh God_, did she want it, to finally be done with the dance and free-for-all fear for his life every time they were in the same room together.

But now there was something else, something much darker stewing beneath the surface.

She could feel her pulse thump appreciatively at it, just from the mere thought. Her chest clenched in yearning for it, and her veins constricted as she fought to ignore it. A deep, unsteady breath rushed into her lungs when her skin prickled at the absence of sensation. Of _touch_ and heat, feeling cornered by seas of green and firm hands claiming her in every way they wanted. The yearning thrumming in her muscles was bordering on a dangerous need, and it scared her because she only had a few hours left in her heat cycle. This kind of unbridled lust shouldn't be so strong still.

Then, there was the guilt and sorrow coating everything like a poisonous sugar. Alec had spent his life in Manticore, with only a little over a year of freedom. She knew there was a lot of darkness in him; Joshua had been the first one to help her see that. Alec was always so carefree and facetious though, that she often forgot how dark that black pit got. It seemed he hadn't healed as well as she had thought, and she just realized how little she _really_ knew about Manticore. She had spent only a few months there before she broke out and freed everyone else; she knew nothing of the horrors Alec had been subjected to. Nothing at all.

"Max?"

"Hm," Max said, finally snapping out of her stupor to look up at Mole. Blankly, she registered that everyone was looking at her curiously.

"You gonna weigh in on this ever?" Mole asked expectantly, the slight bob in his head indicating he was slightly annoyed. She blinked at him a moment, before she glared straight ahead of her.

"Sorry guys….but I can't do this today. There's something I gotta do. Write up what you have so far, and leave it in my office. I'll look over it tonight, and we'll reconvene tomorrow morning. Take the rest of the afternoon off, if you want," Max said, as she gathered her things up and slipped her coat on. There was some protest, but she ignored it wholeheartedly until she was out the door. The only one who was eerily quiet was Joshua, who kept a knowing stare on Max's back. He had made a promise though, so he said nothing as he watched his friend go.

* * *

Alec sat atop the old tower Max frequented often in the night. But it was midday now, and he vaguely noted that the city looked much prettier at night from this vantage point. He had only come up here a few times with Max; it was her spot, and he wasn't trying to intrude. He couldn't deny that it was nice to have it to himself for now though. Time passed by indefinitely for him, his green eyes merely watching the patterns of people go by below him without much thought running through his head. It was easier that way. He didn't know how long he had been there when he heard his phone ringing in his pocket.

"Y'ello," he chirped.

"Hey, my man. I'm outside the club now. There's no sign of Grenade's hummer. I just talked to the owner, and he said it's been impounded for being left on the street too long," Sketchy said from the other end. Alec's face remained void of any expression as he ran a finger across his upper lip, mind lost in thought for a moment.

"Sketchy, we're going back to that club tonight," Alec said suddenly.

"What? Why?"

"Because I need you to see if you can spot that woman again. Maybe she can give us something to go on," Alec said. Before he hung up, he added, "Don't invite the girls."

* * *

The ride over to Logan's did little to quell her nerves, but it was enough that she no longer felt like slamming her fist into something. She parked her bike outside of Joshua's old house, and Logan's new hideout. A heavy breath eased in and out of her to steady her nerves before she climbed up the steps and opened the door.

"Anybody home," she called as she shut the door behind her. She heard scuffling, and then heavy steps jogging their way toward her.

"Hey! I'm glad you could make it," Logan said cheerily, smiling at her as he came forward to take her bag from her. She almost flinched away from him, but she still had her jacket on, and Logan was already wearing a pair of rubber gloves over his hands. Forcing the tension to ease out of her muscles, she smiled back to him and let him take her pack. As she walked through the foyer, she kept having to remind herself to forget about Alec, and to erase all thoughts of telling Logan what happened between them from her head.

"So who's this new doctor you found," she asked to distract herself. A smile spread over her face as she looked up to some of the Joshua's paintings decorating the walls. It warmed her heart that Logan had not only kept them, but put them up on display around the house.

"Dr. Hazzaman. He's a friend of Dr. Shankar's. Specializes in biochemistry and biological warfare," Logan said, as he finished setting up his little medical kit. Max glanced at him from across the room, and let a small, airy chuckle leave her.

"Dr. Hazzaman? Sounds like a bad joke from a crook who smokes too much reefer," Max joked. Logan stopped what he was doing, finally finished, and stood to look at Max. A small, unsure laugh left him as he placed his hands against his hips.

"Yeeeeah, well. He turned down Manticore for a job at the Genetics Lab…in Terminal City," Logan said almost teasingly, his eyes brightening a little when Max looked at him disbelievingly. He smiled wider, and nodded a little, before saying, "worked there before it became uninhabitable for us. If anyone else is qualified to figure this out, it's him."

Max nodded to him. "Right," she conceded, finally stepping forward and shedding her jacket off. She threw it onto a chair, and let out an easier breath. This was exactly what she needed, and a more genuine smile took over her lips as she stepped closer to Logan. Even when thing were really bad, and he only seemed to make it worse, there was something about Logan that made her feel better. It was odd, and she couldn't explain it, but it was true. She'd say it was safety she felt with him, but that was pretty irrelevant now since them being in close proximity was now anything _but _safe. But there was just something about the familiarity they had that made her feel secure, even when she felt insecure about her standings with him.

For a moment, she could forget the outside world existed.

She rolled her sleeves up passed her elbows and over her biceps until both her veins were showing. Logan brought a reverent hand up, and gripped ahold of her left forearm. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, and a small, bittersweet smile passed between the two. They both longed for the contact to be skin on skin, because this poor substitute was a horrible comparison. But at least it was something.

That was starting to not be enough, and they both knew it.

Which was exactly why they were here, trying again to overcome this trying obstacle. Max sat down on a chair, and Logan sat across from her as he brought her arm to splay across the table. Their eyes fell to her arm as Logan swabbed it clean with some water. She almost laughed a little, because it was really unnecessary, but she kept quiet as he brought a needle to her skin and gently pierced into her vein. The sensation of loss was muted easily with her transgenic pain suppression, and she looked up to him as her blood was drawn into a vile.

"You alright? You seem a bit deflated today," Logan asked, though his focus remained on his task. She stared at his face for a moment, silently marveling at his ability to pick her apart so well. Over two years, and he knew her well enough to pick things up, even when she hid them. It wasn't an infallible ability, but with any luck, perhaps it would become one, one day. She smiled a little to him as he switched the full vile with an empty one.

"Yeah," she said absently, eyelashes fluttering to hide the turmoil in her eyes. A moment of stupidity surged in her gut, urging her to tell him the truth, but she choked it down just as quickly. Instead, she decided to help mask her troubles with a half-truth. "It's just Alec."

At that name, Logan let his gaze briefly glance to Max's distant face. He may have been made aware nothing was going on between the two of them, but that didn't mean the name no longer made him a bit edgy. He didn't hate Alec or anything; they had come a long way from that, but he didn't hold any rivers of fondness for the boy either. "Is he okay," Logan asked quietly, as he inserted the third and final vile into place for Max's blood.

"Yeah…I mean, I don't know."

"Did you guys have a fight," Logan tried again, and Max fidgeted a little, eyes darting into her lap as she rubbed her thumb into the palm of her hand that had blood being drawn from it's veins.

"Yeah. It was this stupid meeting about laws for Terminal City, and Dix mentioned Psy-Ops. Alec kinda lost it after that, tore into me pretty good before taking off," Max recounted dully. Logan tied the tourniquet off before capping the last sample of blood. He looked up to Max briefly with a sympathetic smile, before he pulled the needle out and placed a small piece of gauze over the puncture hole. Barely a drop of blood seeped into it before it healed over.

"He's still got a lot of scars to work through from Manticore. He'll be alright, Maxie," Logan assured her soothingly as he placed his equipment down. She continued to frown and stare at the table, even as he took both her hands in his own.

"Yeah, I know….it's just, I have no idea what he went through. What they _all _went through. I mean, I was only there for a few months, and yeah it sucked pretty bad when we were kids. But they all have so much-"

"Hey," Logan said, cutting off her self-wallowing rant before she fell too deep in her grief. He rubbed soothing circles into her hands, which would have felt much better if not laced with the sterile feeling of gloves between them. It was a sacrifice they would hopefully not have to deal with for much longer. Finally, she came to look at him with sad eyes, and he only smiled to her even kinder.

"You freed them from that. And maybe you don't know what they went through, and you can't take it back for them… But you made sure they won't have to go through it again. You gave them a new home, safe from Manticore and prejudice from others who don't understand them. It will take time Maxie, but they'll all heal from what Manticore did to them. In time, you'll see. You saved them all," Logan assured her, and she managed to muster a small smile to him. She was so thankful for him, it brought tears to her eyes that she refused to shed, because they would fall for grief in the way she had betrayed him, and she couldn't handle that right now.

"Yeah…and now I have to save everyone else," Max said gloomily, referring to the cryptic prophecy still tattooed onto her skin in letters from a language no one knew how to speak, save for the one she didn't want to know. White. A thick, foreboding tension fell over the two about the mysteries lurking around the corner for them. All they could do was stare into each others eyes and pray for this moment to keep them free from that dread, while both of them were silently worrying over it.

* * *

Alec and Sketchy got to the club around 9pm. It was just as crowded as the night before, which seemed to delight Sketchy because there were more innocent girls for him to creep on. Alec wasn't in the hunting mood tonight, not in that way, anyway. They made their way through the first floor to get to the bar. Even though he wasn't looking for any action, didn't mean he couldn't multitask. He could wingman for Sketchy while they kept an eye out for the one they were looking for, and he never turned down alcohol. It wasn't like he could get drunk easily anyway.

After about three shots, two beers, and some hearty conversation, Sketchy nudged Alec's elbow before he nodded across the spacious room. Leaning closer to his transgenic friend (even though it was unnecessary), he said, "That's her, over there. Blonde in the red dress."

Alec looked up and followed his friend's gesture, tilting his head left then right to try and see through the shifting people. He could make out her profile, and only bits and pieces of her. When his eyes dilated to zoom in on her, his pupils were briefly shocked by how her platinum locks glowed in the black light, before they adjusted to smooth out the contrast. Her face was covered by the strands, so he couldn't see what she looked like, but he mapped out her profile and how the crimson silk covering her skin clung to her curvaceous body _just_ the right way. Glancing to Sketchy briefly, he clasped his friend on the shoulder and pointed toward the bar. Sketchy nodded and ushered him off.

The transgenic smoothly maneuvered through the thriving dance floor, and slipped his way into a space at the bar. It opened up to him a moment later when two women sauntered off, and he smiled lazily as he rolled his torso into the edge of the counter. He dropped his glass to the counter, and shoved it forward slightly to get the bartender's attention. There were many patrons shouting and volleying for drinks around him, causing Alec to snort at their desperation.

He didn't have to wait long for attention to be drawn to him, but it wasn't from the bartender that he received the scrutiny. A looming sensation pushed into his left side, and Alec turned his head to see the blonde chick staring straight at him, only a mere foot away. She was casually leaning against the counter with one elbow, her entire body facing him in a leisurely manner than invited him to feast his eyes on her vivacious form. He wasn't shy about it either as his eyes trailed down the length of her dress, the slit at it's hem slanted to show off more of her left leg, which was conveniently pushed toward him to splay perfect porcelain flesh to him. A broad smirk lazily passed over his face, and his eyes slowly trailed up, briefly settling on her plump, perky breasts, before he took in her exotic face.

"Well, just the one I was waiting for," Alec said cheekily. The woman smiled at him, showcasing perfectly white, straight teeth, and _'Holy fuck, this chick really IS hot.'_ She still had a bit of baby fat to her cheeks, which rounded them out nicely, but the rest of her face was angular and slender, smooth skin coating every curve. Her lips were thin and pulled up into a dazzling smile that only accentuated her natural beauty. Her eyes framed a tiny nose, and were the bluest sapphire he had ever seen.

"Am I, now," she said back cheerily, and he was thoroughly surprised to find she had an English accent. When his eyes widened slightly, the woman smiled and leaned forward. Alec had the initial instinct to look down and catch her growing cleavage, but the way her eyes held to him stopped the trail of his gaze in it's tracks. She leaned close enough so he was forced to stare into nothing but her eyes, and the blue in them seemed to swell around him. He felt his breath catch as those sapphires pierced through his very soul, absorbing any thoughts he had of everything else, except the woman before him. His mouth parted slightly, as if he had to suddenly pant for air, but nothing seemed to quench his thirst for life except the suddenly intoxicating pheromones wafting off this mystery woman.

"Yeah," he said, throat catching awkwardly around his voice to constrict the sound of it. _Christ_, he sounded like a goddamn prepubescent teen! Clearing his throat a little, he offered a nervous smile before he chuckled a little awkwardly. Her smile widened a little.

"What for?"

"What?"

"What are you waiting for me for," she asked again as she tilted her head a little. Not once had her gaze broken from him, and he found he couldn't look away from the swirling blue of her eyes. Everything felt fuzzy all of a sudden; the club, the music, even his own head falling into background noise as the woman before him consumed all his awareness.

"Uhhh," he stammered, awed into a damn stupor as the woman's features only became more striking against the darkness around her. She seemed to _glow_ with this heavenly aura, that even her dress sparkled before his eyes. _'Fucking stunning.' _ And then she was laughing, the most heavenly sound he'd ever heard. In a shy manner he found too fucking adorable, she briefly turned her face away from him to stifle her giggles into the counter, before she came back to herself and smirked at him.

"Sorry. That probably sounded really confusing," she admitted bashfully, and Alec couldn't help but chuckle along with her dopily. He was grinning ear to ear now like a drunken schoolboy.

"No, it's okay," he assured her with a dazed and slightly strung out voice. Blinking a few times rapidly, Alec finally seemed to regain some of his wits. He remembered why he wanted to talk to her, but hadn't really gained his conversation skills back, so just blurted out what he wanted to know tactlessly; "Were you with a guy last night? He's about five-eight, scraggly brown hair, dark eyes…goes by the name of Grenade?"

"Mmmm, nope. Doesn't ring a bell," the woman said, the smile on her gorgeous face briefly replaced with a contemplative frown. It was Alec's turn to frown.

"Well, you see. My friend over there," Alec said, leaning backward to point a finger at Sketchy, whom had found his way into coaxing some brunette to have a drink with him. _'Go Sketch-ball,'_ Alec thought briefly, a bit of pride returning his smile to his face as he looked back to the woman he had staring at him curiously. "Says he saw you last night dancing with him. He's our friend, you see, and I'm trying to find him," Alec explained. A perplexed look overtook the woman's face.

"You mean he's missing," she asked, voice squeaky with alarm. Alec's brows rose a little in surprise.

"Not sure. That's what I'm trying to find out, which is why I thought you could help me?" The woman frowned at him, looking down at the counter before she shook her head a little.

"It wasn't me dancing with him, sorry Love. But maybe it was my sister," the woman said, that sexy accent causing her velvety voice to punch the words into Alec's gut. Her deep ocean eyes flickered up to him, chin still tilted downward to give her a strangely mischievous look that Alec couldn't help but smirk wryly at.

"You have a sister," he asked impishly, which the woman nodded to. "Is she here tonight?" Unfortunately, the woman shook her head at this question, and that caused Alec to frown.

"She's home tonight," the woman said. As she spoke, she slowly twisted against the counter until her back was pressing into it, elbows folded behind her to keep her upright. This invariably led to her breasts pushing out, which Alec's eyes were instantly drawn to, dangling so teasingly in the air for him.

"Wanna take me home to meet her," he found himself mindlessly saying. She smirked slightly, tilting her head just enough to cast her devilish eyes on him, watching him stare at her breasts unhindered. With a single step, she rose to her full height and simultaneously came closer to him. It pushed her breasts just under his chin, and Alec's breath hitched as he watched them bounce to him. He had to fight off the urge to just sink his face into her cleavage right then and there, when he felt her slender fingers curl around his wrist. Surprised, he blinked his eyes up to her face, and instantly lost himself in her mystifying gaze again. He was definitely drowning, but it felt so blissful he didn't want it to stop.

She turned away from him then, and her fingers slid into his hand as she walked away. The moment she pulled on him, he obediently followed after the sharp, jutting sway of her hips with his feet and his eyes. She led him through the dancers, and up the ledge on the first floor, before the pair made their way out the side entrance of the club. It led into an alleyway behind the club, big enough that dump trucks could squeeze in to, to collect the trash the few times they got the damn things loaded with enough gas. There wasn't much to see, but another run down building on the other side, and another empty alleyway across the fence to their right. Toward the left, it emptied out into one of the side streets that wrapped around the far side of the club.

"Hey what's your name, anyway," Alec suddenly asked, before he was forcefully shoved into the wall of the club they just left. With a startled grunt, he watched her with curious eyes as she dug her hands into his sides to keep him still. Her glinting eyes cast a daring look up to his face.

"Lily. My name's Lily," she said seductively, before she leaned forward and crashed her mouth into his. A groan instantly left him at her heavenly taste, and his hands found their way to her hips to bring her closer as she deepened the kiss with an eager tongue. For a moment, all the world consisted of was this passionate lip-lock, and Alec's hands roamed up her back to feel spots of flesh through the open back of her dress. He knew he was supposed to be doing something, but he couldn't seem to grasp what it was anymore as _Lily_ overwhelmed all his senses with her divinity.

"_Aah!"_ he suddenly yelped, breaking their kiss to shove her back a little when he felt a sharp sting at his left side. Keeping one hand wrapped around her shoulder, he looked down at his own body to see a small object protruding from his thin sweater. Brows furrowing slightly, he pinched two fingers around it with his left hand, and carefully plucked the dart out of his flesh.

"There's enough to put three tigers down in that. Think it'll be enough for you," Lily asked sweetly, tilting her head a little as she watched Alec's eyes wander back to her face. His eyes were already hazy, and he looked like an idiot blinking at her so bleakly like that. It almost made her smile, watching him fight to keep consciousness against the fog already clouding his judgment, but his grip on her shoulder tightened. Alec jerked forward slightly and brought his left hand up, fingers curling around the dart in a fist as he mustered all the strength he had left to punch her.

Quicker than he could move in his tranquilized state, she unzipped her wristlet and chucked it away to unsheathe a Taser, that she mercilessly jammed into Alec's right side. The X5's entire body went rigid, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body convulsed with the electricity painfully forcing its way through his nerves. The tremors were so severe, Alec couldn't even scream out, every muscle seizing tight enough to strangle him.

"Guess not," Lily mused childishly, before she pulled the Taser out of him and watched him fall lifelessly to the ground. His muscles immediately gave out, slumping into dead weight from the tranquilizers now thickly coating his consciousness. Only a few inconsistent muscle spasms from his shot nerves indicated he was still alive. Lily looked away from him then, down the next alleyway to make sure the coast was still clear as a dark van backed into the crime scene from the side street. It stopped just a few feet from Alec, and the back doors opened to reveal three large, typical linebacker-shaped men. They clamored out of the vehicle and surrounded the X5, before lifting him up and chucking him into the back of the van.

"What about the boy," Lily said, nodding her head toward the club they were about to leave behind. One of the grunts stopped to cast a dull glance at her. He grunted a little.

"What about him?"

"He made me. Should we do something about him," Lily spoke nonchalantly. The man hummed a little, and cast a half-hearted glance at the side door.

"He's just a human. Hardly worth our time. Besides, we've met our quota on test subjects with this one. There's no reason for you to hunt here anymore," the male said, before he turned and climbed into the back of the van. Lily hummed under her breath in contemplation, her keen eyes staring at the door for a moment longer. Then, she turned, and with the same sway in her hips, she walked up to the van and climbed in while her arms elegantly reached out for the doors on either side of her. She shut them behind her, and the van took off down the street without a witness in sight.

**AN: OMG WUT?! NO WAY! An actual plot is forming! Don't worry guys, I promise you'll get some answers as to wtf just happened in the next episode. Poor Alec though, in trouble again haha! Will he make it out on his own? Stay tuned to find out! Questions, comments, suggestions, guesses, please feel free to leave them all for me! I love and appreciate each one, and they give me the strength to go on with the story! Thanks so much. Till next time ;D**


	5. Branded and Bruised

**AN: Whoa guys! Has it really been 2 weeks already? Sorry to make you wait longer on this one! I initially had a lot more in this chapter, but as it was getting to be pretty lengthy, and I'm still not done with the later scenes, I decided to split it up into 2. I also didn't wanna leave you hanging even longer! So here's a teaser ;) I also want to make a declaration: I've gotten a lot more for this story than I thought I would, and it has turned into my own personal version of season 3. With that said, I want to make it abundantly clear this is a Max/Alec centered fic, but I cannot ignore Logan because he ****_is _****Max's love interest for 2 seasons and still is going into season 3, so be prepared for some love triangle-ness and heated tension in that respect! I intend to give it justice, so it's gonna get sticky, but I can promise you guys you'll get what you want in due time. Just stick with me!** ** And I'll absolutely take all your requests into consideration :3**

**Without further adieu: Chapter 5!**

There was something very surreal about waking up to the feeling he'd been in a coma for decades. His mind woke up before his body did, leaving him trapped in darkness but fully aware – well, _vaguely_ aware. Alec had to wonder if someone had taken a sledgehammer to the side of his head, because everything felt so unbelievably slow. Except it wasn't painful, but more like he had his brains swapped with cotton while he was out. The rest of him was even more sluggish, his body weighed down by the entire universe, and he could hardly feel his own limbs.

Aside from the pain in his side left from the needles of a Taser anyway, that still throbbed dully, fading between a sharp sting and lingering burn. The small puncture hole the dart left behind had already healed over, and the Taser burns were well on their way, but he remembered them each vividly. It all came flooding back to him through the fog; the blonde woman, Lily, her heated kiss, and the moment she stabbed him with a tranq-dart. Then, things started to get fuzzy again, but he remembered the pain before everything went black.

'_Fucking bitch, _Alec thought venomously, a hoarse groan leaving him as he tried to lift his head. His tongue was dry and heavy, and his neck wasn't quite responding to his brain's commands yet. Lily wasn't kidding; the dose she had given him would have likely OD-ed a normal human into a surefire death. Lucky he wasn't a normal human, but while his liver was processing the drugs like a champion and cleaning his blood in record time, it was still a lot to process through. Giving up for a brief moment, Alec let his head slump down again and took another moment to reassess his situation.

In hindsight, he couldn't understand what made him follow after Lily like a dog panting for a dangling steak. Yeah, she was hot, but so was Max. More importantly, so was _he_, and he'd never lost his cool like that with a woman before. Not quite like this, anyway. She had been a damn suspect for crying out loud! The clearer his head felt, the more he convinced himself she had somehow hypnotized him, but maybe that was just his ego trying to do damage control.

"494. I've been hoping to cross paths with you again," a sharp, rumbling voice cut through his thoughts. Surprised, Alec's brows rose, and with renewed strength, he forced his head up. It took almost all his willpower, but he managed to lull it backward, until it connected into something cylindrical and hard behind him with a small _'thud'_. _'Probably a pipe,' _he thought, as he set on the second task of opening his eyes. It was equally as difficult, and when he finally mustered to pry his eyelids apart, all he was met with was thick blurriness.

"How did you survive the bomb," the man asked plainly. For a moment, Alec didn't know what the hell the mystery person was talking about. But a few things caught up to him then, as his body slowly kicked itself into gear. As he blinked the blur from his eyes slowly, he noticed the faint sound of metal clinging against metal in a regimented way. His limbs gained more feeling in them, and he realized there was more to his immobility than just an overabundance of tranquilizers. His arms were bound rigidly behind his back, forced flush against the pole he was weakly standing against by coils of cold metal he could only guess were chains; he could feel them wrapped around his arms from biceps to wrists. He also realized he knew this voice. _White_.

"I had it removed," Alec mumbled simply, causing a humorless smile to cross White's face. He nodded a few times. He was looking more for a _who _and _how, _but he didn't really expect less from a troublesome transgenic. And oh, was this one troublesome, almost as much as 452.

"Of course," White drawled, eyes turning down to the table he was working at. Squinting slightly as some of his sight came back to him, Alec's eyes also fell to the silver table the agent was working at. He realized the metal he'd heard clanking together was Ames setting out an array of sharp, foreboding tools that gleaned in the artificial light.

"Guess this means she doesn't have a sister," Alec grumbled groggily, sage eyes sluggishly fixating on the objects splayed before him without much thought behind what they could mean. He had a vague idea, given his background.

"She does," White said nonchalantly, as he picked up a brown bag and placed it at the edge of the table. Callously, he looked up to Alec and said, "She's hideous, and completely useless. So we had her removed." Alec laughed dryly to that.

"Of course you did. That's just great. So Lily's Manticore then," the X5 said.

"No. She's not."

"You mean she's a part of your freakazoid breeding cult?!" Alec scoffed, voice laden with appalled bewilderment.

"Freakazoid?" Ames repeated, his thick brows scrunching together. He stopped what he was doing, and rounded the table to stand just before Alec. "You're the only freak here, 494. We were all naturally born."

"Hey, I was naturally born," Alec protested.

"You were a science project developed in a test tube and slapped into some bitch's womb as an experiment. _We _relied on selective breeding to guide our ways. So tell me, between a lab mutant and evolution, which of us is the freak," Ames practically snarled in his face. Alec found it interesting how defensive White was over his little cult, and it made him sneer a bit.

"And the fact that you preform twisted rituals to some voodoo god makes no never mind to it, right," Alec jibed. A humorless laugh left White, and he had a strong urge to connect his fist with Alec's stomach, so he did. A quick, painful jab right to the Taser wounds in the boy's stomach had Alec keeling over, hacking on his own lungs before a pained laugh left him.

"Tell me, do you believe in a god, 494," White asked while he turned away from Alec and strolled back to his table.

"No," Alec spat hoarsely. He took a few heavy gulps of breath, before he pulled his head up again. This time, his eyes wandered away from Ames to take survey of the room he was being held in.

"Well, you should," Ames drawled on as he unraveled the top of the bag. He reached in and pulled out a rather large snake. He placed it on the table next to an old wooden goblet. "Lily is proof enough that _our voodoo god_ is true and just. She's one of our greatest accomplishments. One-hundred percent success rate."

"Of what?"

"Hunting," White said simply, the vagueness of his answer causing Alec's stomach to gurgle disturbingly.

"So what, you use her to lure us in. Follow after her dopey eyed and dick hard, right into your trap?" Alec questioned absently, his eyes scanning the 12'x12' room. It wasn't unlike a cell at Manticore, cold and grey with no definable features. Only metal and piping, with a single iron door, likely 3 feet thick, straight behind Ames. It had no window, which was likely an improved design. The table was the only piece of furnishing in the room, and Alec noted it had wheels on its legs.

"Yes," Ames replied apathetically.

"And how does that work exactly, huh? Does she drug our drinks, or uhhh, you guys got her working some magic voodoo of her own," Alec couldn't help but snap bitterly.

"Oh don't be too sour, 494," Ames chided, picking up a knife as he gripped ahold the snake's neck. It hissed at him, but he ignored it to briefly look up at Alec. "Everything about her is engineered by natural selection to be the perfect temptress. Her eyes hypnotize; then, the rest just easily follows. Pheromones become more potent, her voice induces endorphins and dopamine rushes," the agent explained distractedly, his attention back on the snake as he cleanly chopped its head off and emptied its blood into the goblet. "We call her the Siren. You never stood a chance. No one ever does."

"Oh, well, lucky me," Alec muttered sarcastically. "So what's the end game, huh?"

"An unforeseeable complication has been discovered in your DNA. The scientists of Manticore developed it, likely under my father's orders, but it's brought a certain…variability to our plans," Ames explained, without really explaining anything at all. "We're just being thorough with the diagnosis before we proceed."

"And I guess I'm helping you with that," Alec murmured dryly, watching as White morbidly dripped the snake's blood over the burning base of a strangely hilted knife.

"Precisely," Ames said. There was a small pause in their conversation that allowed something to nag itself into the back of Alec's mind.

"Uh huh…. And why did you belly flop on them, Manticore? Isn't it like your baby?"

"Manticore is being dismantled as we speak because they decided to stray from our goals. After the fiasco of the transgenics' escape, they became obsolete. It's a regrettable adjustment, but bearable nonetheless. Now, the public will continue to be so bent chasing you and yours, and phantom government organizations that they'll never see us coming," White said, making Alec's brows furrow contemplatively.

"Why are you telling me all this," Alec couldn't help but ask. Ames didn't respond. He merely looked up to Alec with a stoic look, which was enough for the X5 to understand. It didn't matter what White told him, because one way or another, he wouldn't be leaving this prison.

"You know…our custom is to brand this into the forearm. Makes the process last longer, gives the body a chance to fight it, but…" White said quietly as he picked the drenched knife up and came around to stand in front of Alec. With a sharp movement, White grabbed the back of Alec's neck and plunged the burning hilt of the dagger into the left side of the X5s jugular. A muffled growl of pain escaped Alec through his heavily gritted teeth as the branding bled through into the veins beneath his singed flesh. The stench made him nauseas, and he instantly felt the fire seep into his blood, spreading sharp, clawing pain through his system with the race of his pumping heart.

"I don't feel like giving you that luxury," Ames murmured into his ear, leaving the burning metal to Alec's neck longer than necessary. When he finally pulled it away, he released Alec's head to drop forward lifelessly, and watched with muted amusement as the boy panted to quell his pain.

"Now, we'll have to see if you survive the next several hours, which I actually hope you do, because when you make it to tomorrow morning, we're going to perform an autopsy on you just like we did with your twin," Ames spoke lowly, _fondly_, almost as if he were speaking to a lover. His hand jutted upward, and latched around Alec's chin so he could push up and force the X5 to look at him. Cold black met with glazed green, and Ames let a taunting smile grace his lips as he leaned a little closer to Alec to whisper, "the only difference will be, you'll still be alive when we begin the operation."

With that left for him, Ames let go of Alec's lifeless head, not watching as it fell limply toward his chest. He packed up his instruments, and wheeled the table out. "Lock the door, and no one goes in until I return," he ordered the guard standing in wait. With a heavy creak, the door closed and bolted shut, leaving Alec alone in darkness.

* * *

Max had spent the evening with Logan, but she refused to spend the night. She left shortly after dinner, and felt calmer when she made her way back to TC, but just as lost. Sleep had evaded her that night, but it usually did. Luckily, her mind remained blank for most of the night. Unfortunately, it didn't make her feel better.

By morning's light, she rose from her bed with a robotic languishment in her movements. She left her refurbished room, and entered her kitchen to start a pot of coffee. Her new apartment was nice (once she'd cleaned it out and remodeled a bit), but it still didn't feel quite like home. It had only three rooms, but was about the same size as her old place, and it looked a little similar too, which was exactly why she picked it. The biggest difference was the view; this apartment was on the top floor of a 6-story apartment building, and had direct access to the roof. That was her favorite part.

When her coffee was done, she climbed the stairs to the roof and sat in her bathrobe on the ledge, and looked down at her new empire. Her strange little life wasn't so little anymore. She was head of "Freak Nation", and though she didn't know what she was doing, she was managing the best she could. That came first; the rest of her social crap came after.

But it was all her mind could think about since the night at the club. As much as she hated to admit it (and she really wouldn't, if anyone asked), it had changed everything. She liked to convince herself she was being ridiculous, and just blowing it all out of proportion for no reason, yet she knew that was just a fool's dream. It shouldn't have mattered so much, and it _bothered_ her that it did. She just didn't know the why for any of it.

When she thought about him thrusting into her in wild, reckless abandonment, her loins _throbbed_ for him. It was sharp, and powerful, and made her fidget where she sat. The animalistic nature of their fleeting passion was something she'd never had a taste of before, and now found herself irrevocably thirsty for. It was unsettling, and a bit embarrassing. As she sipped on her coffee, she made a promise to herself to bury this absurd desire she suddenly had for Alec.

Because she was still in love with Logan, so there was no more room for another.

Alec may have been right; they _were _a danger to the ordinaries, but that didn't matter to Logan, so she couldn't let it matter to her. He was all she'd wanted for two years, and now that there was a chance to get the cure again – _no_, she wasn't going to get her hopes up. Not again. Once had been hard enough. Twice was devastating. She didn't think she could handle another disappointment over it. Sighing, she finished the last of her coffee, and made her way back into her apartment to get ready for the day.

An hour later, and she was walking into Command Central. Her pack was slung over her back, and the rough-sketch notes of their potential laws were securely clustered in her hands. She'd gone over them briefly the night before, after she'd picked them up on her way home from Logan's place. Unfortunately, assassins weren't great at policy-making, so there was _a lot_ for her to work through with them. She didn't even make it to her office before more problems found her.

Joshua came up to her looking sadder than a kicked puppy - _okay, bad pun, Max_. Silently kicking herself, Max stopped dead in her tracks, and she looked up to the dog-man with fretful concern. "Is everything ok?"

Joshua whined quietly, a profuse pout on his snout as he slowly shook his head. "Alec never come home last night," the trans-human mumbled. Max's heart did a jolt in her chest at the same time her mind blanked out. The first thought her brain came up with was, '_so_ _what_?' Yet her heart seemed to not agree, and it made her painfully aware of it's existence as it pulsed heavily in her chest.

"Hey, it's ok Big Fella. He was pretty pissed yesterday. He probably just ran off for some selfish jerk time, right? Has anyone else seen him?" Joshua shook his head to her question.

"Not since meeting yesterday," he hummed, another whine scratching out his throat. She gave him a sympathetic smile, and reached up to squeeze his forearm comfortingly.

"I'm sure he'll turn up. He always does," Max said confidently, but she had a contradictory nagging in her gut. Yeah, Alec had disappeared before, but most of those times were a result of some catastrophic jam the idiot found himself in that _she_ always had to bust him out of. She buried that thought for the sake of Joshua, but he didn't look anymore convinced than she felt. Frowning a little, she squeezed his arm a little tighter.

"We'll look around. Promise. It's only been a day, Joshua. Maybe he went to Sketchy's for the night, huh? I'll give him a call after the morning meeting, okay?" Max offered sweetly, and Joshua mustered a terse smile, before he nodded in compliance. She smiled a little easier to him, before both went to meet with the others.

* * *

Alec felt like he was burning from the inside out. Everything hurt through his very core to the hairs on his skin. He knew he had a fever, and it caused a film of sweat to coat his body as his haggard system fought off whatever it was they forced into him through that burn mark. Which, _that_ hurt like hell too, but he was too tough and too proud to complain. His head was delirious, but that didn't stop him from thinking through it. He _had_ to get out of here, even if it killed him.

He knew now this is what they had done to Grenade, and though he couldn't be sure whether the other was still alive or not, something told him he was too late to save his friend. There was no way he was going to join his comrade. Not like this.

Lifting his head, he blinked through the throb in his skull to search for a way out. Forcing his eyes to focus, he peered around the ceiling, looking for a vent or window he could potentially crawl through. There was nothing, nothing but the damn door. He gave up on that pursuit to attempt to find a way out of his bindings. The chains wouldn't give an inch, and he was still too sluggish from being doped up, and now too weak from infection to break free. Letting his head clank back against the pole, he craned his chin upward to peer above him through bleary eyes.

The pole was bolted into the ceiling by a platform with four screws. Puffing a determined breath, he quickly calculated there would be no way he could acquire one of them, so he turned his stare downward. Shifting his feet to spread a bit wider (luckily, they hadn't bound his ankles as well, which he felt was a very poor decision), he noticed the same thing. The pole leveled out on the floor, and was bolted in with four screws. His breathing grew a little heavier, the combined effort of strategizing and fighting off sickness taking a toll on him, but he ignored it.

Pooling all the strength he had, he curled his arms against the chains, pressing them outward what little they could go (which was barely anything at all), before he started to pull them downward. He could feel his bones grinding against the metal coating both sides of his sweater as he slid downward, agonizingly slow due to the rigid friction. In order to keep quiet, he grit his teeth together, while he steadily crawled his feet outward, until after several minutes, he'd pulled himself to sit flat against the floor. He was panting heavily by this point, and had to take a few moments to rest. His joints at his elbows were _screaming _in pain, and he could feel hot blood pooling against his forearms and biceps to form harsh bruises beneath his abused skin. He felt dizzy and too hot for the clothes he had on, but he couldn't rest for long.

His fingers felt their way across the metal, the cool material feeling like blissful heaven against his heated skin. The moment he found a groove, he pinched his fingertips around the bolt to feel out its dimensions. His breathing was still labored, but he forced it to even out as he concentrated through his swelling head. When he once more mustered what strength he had, he began to pick at the bolt and twist it beneath his finger pads with unbridled diligence.

* * *

The morning meeting hadn't gone as planned, but that was to be expected. They did make a little progress though. Rations were sorted out, the next week's necessities were calculated, strategies for more stable resources were discussed, and they had come up with three solid rules of conduct. No killing, unless in self-defense (applicable toward trannies and ordinaries alike). Thievery is a bonafied accepted practice (until ordinaries gave them their right's back) with the stipulation "as long as they don't steal from one another". And TC gates are open for people to come and go as they pleased, so long as prejudice didn't come and go with them.

Max was still dissatisfied, but that was to be expected too. She couldn't remember the last time she _was_ satisfied with anything. Well, except for the other night…

Fuck. _'Stop going there, girl,'_ Max scolded herself. Unfortunately, she couldn't completely wipe Alec from her mind because she had a call to make. And she could never break a promise to Joshua, of all people. Sighing a little as she retired to her junk-cluttered office and shut the door, she quickly pulled out her cellphone and dialed Sketchy's number. Her head tilted into the receiver, and her eyes looked up toward the ceiling, far too bored in their expression, as she listened to the ringtones breeze by.

When it finally stopped, all she heard was groaning from the other end.

"Sketchy?" Max asked, unsure.

"What?" Sketchy moaned.

"You sound awful," Max murmured as she sat up a bit straighter in her chair.

"Yeah…I'm never drinking again," the man said, although Max knew this wasn't true. In another few days, he'd be ready to have beers with the rest of them. But she couldn't help but smile at his endearing whining, completely oblivious to the pains of wicked hangovers.

"Did you happen to go out with Alec last night?"

"Yeah," he mumbled, clearly agitated over having to speak with her in his current state. Miraculously, Max kept her patience for a beat or two longer.

"Is he with you now?"

"No, he left with that blonde chick," Sketchy regurgitated, actually letting out a gurgled burp with the end of his words. That didn't bother Max at all though, because she was _completely _distracted by something else. _Alec went home with another girl last night?_ It hit her harder than a punch to the gut, and made her entire system jumpstart. Her heart jolted with unrelenting anger, and she felt her nerves itch with the necessity to attack something. The hairs on her arms stood on end, and she felt her vocal chords restrict when she spoke next.

"_What_ _blonde chick,_" she yipped, and to her horrified embarrassment, her voice was two octaves too high. _'Holy fuck- am I jealous right now?!'_ The thought was quickly strangled, ready to be denied to her dying days. Because, _no_! No, she was_ not_ fucking jealous!She was just pissed that he had the nerve to go on about not being able to stop thinking about _them _doing the nasties against some club wall, and here he was fucking another girl already.

_No!_ That didn't sound right either! She should be happy he was already off with another girl, because then that meant what happened between them really _was_ nothing. She was just another girl in Alec's belt notch, easily forgotten and replaced...

Somehow, that didn't sound as comforting as she had hoped. Actually, it made her stomach sour even more. Luckily, Sketchy finally mustered the energy (or brain capacity) to pull her out of her thoughts.

"The chick from the club-"

"You mean the club we went to together the other night," Max cut in, the shocking anger creeping it's way back into her nerves. _That bastard_ didn't take someone from the same place their passion exploded in…! There was something fiercely territorial Max felt over the whole situation she didn't even want to _begin_ to analyze, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking it as her fingers curled a death grip around a nearby pencil.

"Yeah," Sketchy murmured, not picking up on Max's agitation at all, though the faint sound of snapping was heard through the line as the pencil gave way to Max's fury. He was too hung over and tired to mull through that crap because it was still only – _'shit, is it really only 9am?!'_ He groaned lightly into the phone, turning away from the clock and shutting his eyes before he continued, "we went back last night to find the girl Grenade was dancing with the night we all went together. Only Alec decided to ditch me and take her home instead."

Sketchy's fingers were covering his eyes now to try and block out his headache, when something dawned on him. It momentarily sprung him out of his sluggishness, eyes shooting open as he shot up on his couch awkwardly (since his legs were dangling over the armrest on one side).

"Hey, you haven't seen him, have you," he asked with a bit more vitality, despite the shooting throb he caused in his skull by moving too quickly.

"_No_, you moron. That's why I'm calling you," Max said exasperatedly. She was fully ready to hang up now, and since Alec's missing person case was just a case of _dick_ all over, she was just about to when confusion rung in her ears.

"What?" Sketchy asked dopily. It flared her anger up a bit.

"What?" she bit back. It took Sketchy a moment to catch up.

"No, not Alec. Grenade. Have you seen him? I figure since Alec's with his girl now, he must be home now, right? Unless the two are double-teaming her," Sketchy mused, actually chuckling wolfishly at his joke. Max scoffed heavily, and nearly gagged into the receiver.

"Ugh, _God_, Sketchy! Could you _be_ any more sketchy?!" she spat in annoyance, but it was all in good taste. Her friend only laughed a little more, before his head split open again and he winced heavily while falling back onto his couch.

"Hey, I gotta live up to the name," he murmured, but the time for light humor was now over. Max frowned profusely and looked up from her desk, out the grungy window of her office.

"So… wait, why did you guys go to find that girl? You went to ask about Grenade," Max asked then, her heartbeat pounding for an entirely different reason now. Because, despite how badly she wanted to be furious with Alec and ignore anything more to do with him, she was pretty sure this had _catastrophe_ written all over it.

"Yeah," Sketch confirmed. "Alec was kinda worried he hadn't heard from him, and his car's impounded, so we wanted to ask her where he might be, since I saw him leave with her the other night."

"And Alec left with her last night?"

"Yeah," Sketchy said nonchalantly, before his brain caught up with his mouth. "Oh."

Fuck.

**AN: Oh nuuu! Hurt Alec and angry Max T_T Never good! So I promise you guys things will pick up a ****_lot _****in the next chapter, but I hope you guys enjoyed this one nonetheless! Your reviews give me courage and inspiration, so I do hope you all will give me a piece of your thoughts; I'd greatly appreciate it! And I'll definitely be expanding on a lot that happened in this chapter in the next chapter. So stay tuned. Thank you all my readers :D**


	6. A Dance With Death

**AN: OMG NO WAY! An update?! You still with me guys? I'm so sorry for the delay on this one, but between GISHWHES (if you're a Supernatural fan, you'll likely know what this is), my brother visiting, going on vacation, and getting ready to move, I've been SUPER busy! So there's the reason for my absence. I won't make this too long; I know you guys wanna get on with it already. I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who've favorited/followed/reviewed, and that if you've made a request in your reviews that you wanna see in the story, I'll do my best to include them in the story. You might not see them right away, but I assure you I'll incorporate them as I can while remaining true to my plot. Now, on with it!**

**Warnings for this chapter: Violence and gore**

The minute Max was off the phone with Sketchy, she left her office and tracked down Mole. "Have you seen Grenade today," she interrogated him the moment she found him outside, speaking with his Arctic ops frenemy. They both stopped speaking, and cast her an aggravated glare, but neither spoke against her. Mole's arms were crossed as he considered Max for a second, before he shook his head resolutely.

"Haven't seen 'em since Alec asked the same yesterday, now that I reckon," the mutant growled, causing Max to stiffen. That meant Grenade hadn't been seen by anyone since they all went to the club together two days ago.

"Get a party together, and ask around. I wanna know if anyone else has gone missing in the last few weeks," Max instructed, making both mutants furrow their brows and straighten.

"Something we should know about?"

"Not sure yet. I'll let you know once you've found out if anyone else is M.I.A," Max dismissed vaguely.

"And how are we supposed to determine that? People come and go as they please here," Mole argued, always one to make things difficult. Severe annoyance flashed though Max's eyes as she glared at him.

"Then pick out the stragglers from the regulars," was her blunt reply, before she turned away and stormed off. They could figure the rest out themselves; she had more important things to deal with. Mole rolled his eyes, grumbling around his cigar before the two mutants went off to do as their fearless leader instructed. Max on the other hand, packed her gear up and hopped onto her precious motorcycle before flying off for her next destination.

* * *

Alec knew he passed out for a little bit in the middle of his mission, which was bad because there was no telling how much time he had lost. It was inconsequential to dwell over now, and since regaining consciousness, he was doing better. The fever had ebbed, and his body, though still ill and weak, was fighting off whatever was ailing him. It made working much easier; his head was a little clearer, and his muscles a bit stronger. His fingers were bleeding now as he continued to twist the bolt up from it's holder, but that too, he ignored. When the screw was finally loose enough to pull free, he folded it in his fingertips, and pushed his hands together to feel it's grooves out.

_'Thank my lucky stars,'_ he thought with a huge sigh of relief. It wasn't a flat bolt as he had feared, but had a sharp, narrow point that could definitely work. _If_ he had the right lock to work with, and the realization of that made him curse under his breath. He shouldn't be so hard on himself since he had been delirious with drugs and illness, but the first thing he _should_ have looked for was the goddamn lock in his chains! Grumbling, he let his head plunk into the pole, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling at his own juvenile mistake while he tucked the nail back into the folds of his fingers.

Keeping it latched between three fingers, he used his other two and his free hand to feel around for the lock mechanism. They were smarter than he thought, but not as smart as they thought. The lock was on the outer edge of his chains, almost high enough to be out of his reach, but it was folded upward against the chains. Closing his eyes, he could feel the distinct arch of a foreign link in the chain, and by the grain of the textures alone he could tell they were different metals. His pointer finger was just grazing the rounded top of a master lock.

With a few heavy puffs of breath, he twisted his wrist against the chains and pushed as hard as he could, trying to inch his fingers up far enough to securely latch around the curve. It was agonizing against his bones, muscles, and skin, and he couldn't keep the small grunt of pain from slipping out his lips at the strain. But he pushed through it until he managed to hook a finger around the lock. Wiggling the digit a little, with finesse and dumb luck, he managed to weasel the lock around the chain so it pointed downward; it became easier to keep hold of when the rest of it came into his grasping reach.

He wanted to rest, but knew he couldn't because if he lost a hold on the lock, he wasn't sure he could stretch his arm like this again. With his thumb, he brushed against the base of the mechanism to feel for the keyhole, before he angled the nail upward from his fingertips. Pushing his other hand to meet the pressure of chains, he started to wiggle the end of the nail into the keyhole.

After what felt like eons, through his screaming forearms and swimming head, Alec managed to pop the lock mechanism. It gave with a heavenly click, and when he pulled down on the chamber, it slid free from the metal arch. With a few more awkward movements, he slipped the lock off and tossed it away with a flimsy wrist. Then, the metal binding him finally gave, and calm relief finally washed over him. His arms slowly moved away from the pole, and he immediately winced at the sharp pain that overtook every fiber in his limbs.

Gently, the chains slipped down to the floor with soft clatters as Alec pulled his arms forward and gingerly cradled them in his lap. He could feel heavy bruising in his wrists and elbows from how harshly he had forced them against the chains, and his muscles and tendons were throbbing with sharp, debilitating pain. Groaning a little, he slouched over onto his side, and wrapped his arms around each other to try and stifle the pain. Grimacing a little, he closed his eyes and tried to stop the throb pulsing from his head to his sore arms and into his charred neck. All there was to do was wait now, and in that time he drifted off from exhaustion once again.

* * *

Max and Sketchy flew to the club the minute they could, which was about noon that very same day due to Sketchy's inability to stay away from the bathroom for more than twenty minutes. Max wanted to ditch him, but she needed a distraction and his expertise on what this blonde looked like. When her impatience outweighed his nausea, and there was a bit more color in his cheeks, the two found themselves at the corner of the street the club was on. Max only now took the time to survey the large lime green neon sign hanging above the door. The place was called Mixer. Given the typical crowd, it might have been funny if she weren't so edgy.

While Sketchy stood awkwardly at the door after knocking several times, Max scoped the place out from every corner and every angle. The Jam Pony messenger was glancing shiftily over his shoulder for several minutes as he waited, until someone finally opened the door. Sketchy was slightly surprised someone was there at such an early hour, but he looked up at the blank face of a hefty man. His face was slightly contorted, as if he'd done too much boxing in his life, and Sketchy subconsciously gulped slowly.

"I was, uh, wondering if you guys were hiring," he asked awkwardly, and the man snorted at him. Slightly offended, Sketchy fought to not curl his lip as he muttered, "I can make drinks that will knock you on your ass." The man smirked amusedly, and Sketchy nearly shifted beneath his condescending gaze, but after a drawn out moment, the door swung open wider and he was invited inside.

What Max noticed while Sketchy drew attention to himself was that cameras lined both the front and back entrances of the establishment, covering nearly every nook, and the roof had it's own access door but (luckily) no cameras. By the time Sketchy was being invited in to show his skills, Max was on the roof, quietly working on jamming the door open with her nifty lock-pick set. When the handle gave, she slowly opened it and snuck in.

The door barely clicked when she shut it, and Max turned her gaze toward an unmistakable VIP lounge. It was extravagant in ways that just weren't attainable these days, and put Logan's old place to shame; her jaw dropped slightly as she descended the five stairs that led from the roof into the room. The large screens were shut off, but covered three-quarters of the room's walls, with the last wall (and longest) of the trapezium-shaped room being made of glass. It was a large window, that when she cautiously drew closer to, looked down onto the second floor of the club, and with the open center in it's platform, could even see into parts of the first floor. Even without the dancing lights and thriving crowds, it was quite the sight.

Awe kept with her for a mere moment, before she retreated into the darkness of the room again. Her hand skated over a plush white leather couch, a curious ease around her with no one there to see that allowed her to take an extra moment to study. The room was large, enough space to fit an entire small entourage, 50 or so comfortably. There was a long beige couch, plush and fuzzed, while the white leather ones sat on it's outside, and at only half it's size. A table sat between them, oak and polished to reflect what light darted in from the floors below. Candles and electric lanterns decorated table stands set up around the room, with a single mellow-glow light on the ceiling that was the shape of a large orb. On the outsides of the couches, there was enough room for people to stand and dance if they wanted, and a long, thin table was set up against the wall opposite the window for what Max guessed was alcohol.

To her left, she found a slight gap where the TV screen didn't quite meet the window, and when she rounded the gap, she saw the stairs that led below. One more glance around the room to check for any more cameras or another door (which there were none), she stealthily stalked down the stairway. It made a 90 degree angle halfway down, until it emptied to a heavy door, that when she opened, led her to the back of the bar on the second floor.

Crouching behind the counter, she peaked around to look for another access door, and more importantly any lingering faces. She lucked out again; there was no one on this floor either, and she could hear the voices wafting from below as Sketchy talked up his skills to someone. Standing up a bit straighter, she noticed a door wedged in the middle of the wall to her left, not far from the corner she and Alec had their little….

A blush crept its way onto her cheeks, but she fluidly leaped over the countertop, and stealthily stalked toward the door. Her eyes remained glued to it, not daring to look at the corner that stained her mind with heady kisses and filthy grinding. It still made heat creep beneath her skin, which she dutifully ignored as she quietly unlocked the door with her tools. When the door swung open, her nose was assaulted by the putrid, burning scent of nicotine and tobacco that froze her dead in her place.

A man was staring at her, grinning ear to ear, as thick fumes of smog quietly slid from between his teeth, curling into the air in lazy strokes. It drifted around his shadowed head, and thinned into the air between them. For being faced with an intruder, he seemed pretty relaxed, leaning back in his chair with his legs propped up on the table in front of him. Behind him, helping to aid the shadow surrounding the man in the unlit room, were a dozen monitor screens covering every area in and around the club, save for the roof and the VIP lounge. The moment she hit the second floor, he had known she was here.

"Weren't expecting eyes to still be on the place?" he mused before taking a thick pull of his cigar again. His voice was old and accented, the kind that came from hard city living. Max studied his veiled face carefully, making out the crinkled lines on his forehead and around his eyes, the slight sag in his skin that came after middle age. He was bald, and his skin was worn with age, dark eyes clouded with time, but he still had beefy muscles beneath the decaying body.

"No," she admitted, eyes flickering to the monitor screens, before they settled back on the man enjoying his smoke.

"Well, I assure you, there's nothing worth stealing in here, doll face," he told her pointedly, as he let smoke cloud his face once again with a patient exhale.

"I'm not here to steal anything," she said, which was a little white lie, but she wasn't going to bother herself with the details. "I just need to see your camera footage from last night," she fessed up. The man's amusement took a different turn now, toward curiosity, and he tilted his head a bit with a purse of lips to urge her to go on. Max shuffled a little, huffing slightly in her impatience; she could just go right through this guy and take what she wanted, but she was _trying _to be more civilized. Logan had taught her well, and now being a leader, well, she didn't really have the luxury of careless brutalism.

"My friend left with someone last night….and I need to find out who, because I think he might be in trouble," she told the man. Her eyes snapped to him with alert annoyance when the man burst into a loud, hearty chuckle at her.

"Sorry, doll face. It don't work like that. Really, trouble? Come now, I know a jealous girlfriend when I see one, and I'm not about to hand over my security feeds to out some skank that caught your man's attention," he growled cheerily, grinning behind his cigar. Yeeeah, _fuck _civility. Max sped around the desk and was before the bastard before he even had time to place his cigar back between his teeth. The shock didn't even fully register on his face when her hand shot out to grab around his wrist. The other found it's way to the back of his neck, and his face was immediately slammed into the desk before him, wrist twisted painfully behind his back, until a choked groan was stuttering out his pained lips.

"Listen here, you piece of shit. I tried to play nice, but I'm going to take what I want whether you-" she had started to snap, but the man's unnerving laughter cut her off.

"You stupid bitch," he hoarsely chided her, causing her brows to furrow in a moment of confused disbelief. Then, everything went sideways. Before she realized it, she was being yanked off the man and twisted around, her front slamming into the wall fiercely as her own arm was pulled painfully behind her back, in the same way she had just done to the arrogant man. She could still hear him chuckling at her as she pried her eyes open to glance the best she could behind herself. She could make out the white cloth of someone's shoulder, and half a silhouette of her assailant's face. The elder man was standing now, a ways behind them, rubbing his arm gingerly as he stood in front of the security monitors.

"You think we could open a tranny friendly place without hiring the muscle to handle your kind?" the man asked, shaking his head and 'tsking' at her. He took a few steps toward her and his superhuman bodyguard with heavy steps, before he leaned against the wall and into her straight line of vision.

"I should have your spine broken," he growled at her, cigar long forgotten on the ground where it had dropped. He ran a hand through her hair, disgusting her into a grimace at the same time the grip around her neck and wrist tightened more uncomfortably. "But that would be bad for business, see, so I'm just going to throw you and your little weasel friend out. If I see you here again though, well….we'll have a different story to tell," the man drawled, before he leaned back and nodded to the giant behind her. With a haggard breath soaking into her lungs, she felt herself be yanked back into strong arms. Embarrassingly, she could hardly even thrash at the crushing grip around most of her torso, and heat flooded her cheeks as she was hauled through the second floor, down to the first floor where Sketchy was being held off the ground by the back of his shirt.

The two identical giants manhandling them chucked them both out the door, unnatural blue eyes staring them down before they turned and slammed the door shut. _'No barcodes,'_ Max noted, before she groaned lightly and gingerly hoisted herself up. Sketchy was panting, glad that Max didn't comment on how unmanly he sounded, yelping like a damn girl when he hit the ground.

"Now what," he asked her dejectedly. Max was glaring at the door with squinted eyes, a distant look in them, before her eyebrows flickered in a reserved way.

"Now, we go with plan B," she murmured with a sigh. Ten minutes later, Max was parking her bike outside a familiar house that she had been to just the day before. She waited for Sketchy to get off before dismounting her prized possession. With a heavy breath, she turned toward the old porch and worn door, and silently mused about what their lives had been reduced to. The two said nothing as they walked up the steps and knocked on the door. When Logan answered, surprise registered on his face for a moment, before he stepped aside and let them in.

He immediately went to fetch a pair of gloves as the two came inside, and Sketchy closed the door behind them. Before Logan even got a chance to ask anything, Max was already on a rampage for what she came for.

"Can you hack the security system of Mixer, and get ahold of their video feed for the last few days," she asked, cutting through all the bullshit of pleasantries and backstory. By now, Logan should be used to the blunt ways Max conducted her affairs, but this one completely broadsided him, because even for her, this was brutishly vague and demanding. Reeling a little as the last glove snapped on, he turned to his guests with bewildered eyes and a slightly agape, but tight mouth.

"Why? Max…what's going on," he asked, but already he was moving toward his computer equipment. There was nothing he could refuse of Max, no matter how rude or absurd it was. Max sighed silently as she and Sketchy followed him into his den, but she knew Logan was doing what she asked. It was only right she answer what he asked.

"I think there's something fishy going on at that club. Two of my people have gone missing the last two nights in a row, and I think it has something to do with one of the customers. I wanted to get a glimpse of her, or maybe even what happened to make them vanish. There's cameras covering the exit points too," she pointed out, keeping her voice as calm as she could. She shifted her gaze slightly to glance at Sketchy, who was giving her a strange, blank look, before she rounded Logan's desk to stand behind him at his computer screen. He was furiously typing away, doing whatever hacker things he was good at that she didn't really understand.

"If they keep the data stored in a central database on any network, I can gain access to it, but if they divert the feed to a separate system, like CDs or something, I won't be able to get it," he warned her, the rest of his focus on the task at hand. She nodded, even though he couldn't see, grateful that he didn't ask any more questions about the details. She didn't know why, but she really didn't want to bring up that Alec was the reason she was so worried over this. In any other circumstance, she would have brought him up with ease, the information holding only her annoyance. And maybe a little bit of concern…but mostly annoyance. Now though, she didn't even want to face it… especially not with Logan so near.

She did her best to be patient as Logan hacked his way into the security system. But a thought dawned on her, one that made her blood run cold, and heart to freeze. Sketchy brows furrowed at her suspiciously as her face seemed to pale, and her fingers clenched even tighter into the lapels of her leather jacket. There were cameras on the second floor! _'What if….what if one of them caught us?'_ The thought made her heart stutter, and her paled cheeks suddenly began to grow rosy with embarrassed heat. _Oh God!_ She couldn't handle that; Logan couldn't find out that way!

"Got it," Logan explained, causing Max to nearly jump out of her skin. She flinched slightly, blinking her eyes to focus on the terminal screen Logan was working through as he asked, "Now what am I looking for?"

"Last night," Max sharply cut in, causing Sketchy to hang on the breath he had just taken to answer. The two glanced at each other, one warily challenging while the other confused and unnerved. Her friend could tell she was edgy, but he shut his mouth to let her continue; "video feed for the first floor and back entrance. What time did you say Alec left with her?"

"Alec?"

"I dunno, around midnight, maybe?" Sketchy said simultaneously with Logan's surprised question. The older man looked from one to the other briefly, before he turned his attention back to the computer screen to bring up the feed they asked for. Within minutes, they were watching a video feed of the club, fifteen minutes prior to Sketchy's time frame.

"That's her," Sketchy said, as he leaned forward and tapped one of his fingers to the screen, where a curvaceous blonde was making her way through the crowd. Max's eyes narrowed, and she leaned over Logan's other shoulder to peer at the woman who had taken her man. _'My man?!'_ Max scoffed inwardly, immediately leaning back to feel like she was distancing herself from the situation. She noticed the subtle tension that washed over Logan's body when she had drawn closer, but promptly ignored it. They watched quietly as the woman approached Alec, and the pair laughed together for several minutes, before the blonde pulled Alec away. Max felt her blood begin to boil, so she gripped around her arms tighter to ground herself. _'What the fuck is wrong with me?'_

"Flip it to the exit cameras now," she said, and Logan typed at his keyboard to do as she said. Only, at the time frame he entered, the cameras were nothing but static. Everyone in the room let out a disheartened breath, and they sank back into themselves. "Is it always like this?" Max asked, and Logan switched the feed to an earlier time of the day, where the camera showed the empty alleyway, working perfectly fine.

"Someone must have tampered with the feed," Logan muttered.

"Or the cameras were turned off before our mystery girl walked out there," Max finished, and Logan nodded somberly. Sketchy looked from one to the other, frowning slightly as Max's eyes narrowed, lips pursing in thought. There was no doubt now that somehow, this club was involved in the disappearances. "We're catching this bitch tonight."

"How, Max? The guys at the club know who we are; I don't think they'll be letting us back in," Sketchy murmured gloomily.

"I can go," Logan offered quietly, but Max shook her head.

"No, I need you to be our eyes from here tonight. Keep an eye on things from a bird's eye-view. I've got another in mind to be our inside man," Max said, offering a small smile to Logan, before she started to walk away.

"Wait, Max," Logan said, rounding the corner of his desk to catch her. He gripped her gently around her shoulder to stop her, and she closed her eyes briefly as she came around to face him. He searched her unreadable expression for a moment, eyes tender as he said, "why didn't you tell me it was Alec who was missing?"

"It's no big deal, Logan," Max said as she shrugged him off. "It's not like it's anything new. I'm used to saving that punk's ass, so let's just get this over with, and find him," she added coldly, before she turned around and walked away before Logan could see the sorrow building in her eyes. "Come on, Sketchy," she snapped, and the lanky man quickly shuffled out the door behind her. She wished she could have said something, told Logan not to fish through the feed, but that would be more than suspicious. It would likely lead to the result she was trying to avoid. All she could do was keep his eyes focused on the present, and hope that he didn't catch what she was hiding.

"Hey, what's up with you, Max?" Sketchy asked once they were off the porch.

"Nothing, I'm fine," she deflected sharply. Sketchy frowned at her, but he didn't push the issue any further as they both climbed onto her bike and took off. She dropped him off at home after that, before quickly making her way to OC's apartment. When she got there, she was exhausted already, even though it was only a little passed 4pm. OC saw how dejected and weary her friend was, and immediately rushed forward to collect her superhuman friend into her arms. People usually forgot how fragile Max could be with how tough she always acted, but OC knew better.

She guided her friend to the couch, and hugged her tight as Max curled her legs underneath herself, and soaked up what warmth she could from her best friend. "It's okay, Boo. I've got you," OC shushed in her ear, and Max felt tears watering her eyes. She didn't even know why she was about to cry; she just felt so overwhelmed and lost. A few tears shed from the build-up once she closed her eyes, and a shaky breath left her as she tried to calm her emotions down. When she felt like she wasn't going to fall apart, she filled her friend in on the shambles her life had quickly fallen in to.

"Oh, Boo. Is there anything I can do?" Original Cindy asked once Max was finished explaining the situation. The transgenic sniffled a little, before she nodded.

"Actually, yeah. I was hoping you'd be willing to go to the club tonight, see if you can spot the girl who took Alec? You don't have to confront her or anything; I'll be waiting in the shadows for her to leave with some poor bastard, and Logan will be helping you to monitor the situation from the cameras," Max said wearily. "I just need eyes on the inside, someone who can tell me what she's doing at ground level."

OC gave her a sympathetic look, and nodded several times. "Of course, Boo. I'm there. Now, let me do something else for you," her friend said, which caused Max's eyes to refocus on her old roommate. She watched OC get up, and disappear into her room to rummage for something, before returning with a circular, white pill. She dropped it into Max's hand, whom flipped it over with her thumb and scrutinized it skeptically. Her dark eyes jerked back up to OC, just as her friend lowered herself onto the couch yet again.

"It's a Plan B pill," OC said softly, and slowly so as to not spook Max. Her friend quirked an eyebrow at her, and OC frowned a bit deeper, eyes dropping to the pill. "You had sex with Alec two days ago, right? During your heat cycle?" the woman said, eyes returning to Max's face. "Isn't that like, prime time for you to be cookin' a baby up?"

Max's head jerked back at the statement, her heart fluttering painfully at the notion. "I didn't even think of that," she admitted sheepishly, slightly awed as her fingers curled protectively around the pill. OC nodded once, pursing her lips as her eyes trailed over to the glass of water seated atop the coffee table.

"Yeah, I figured. And given the nature of your little romp, I'm guessing Pretty Boy didn't wear a condom either," she said slyly, casting Max a questioning look with a quirk of her brow. Max's cheeks only darkened in red, and OC nodded in confirmation. "You're still within the time frame. Take the pill; you'll be fine," she said soothingly, gesturing to the water glass with a wave of her hand. Max didn't need a second telling, and nodded once before she popped the pill into her mouth, and dutifully swallowed it down with a few gulps of water.

"Where did you even get one of these? I thought they stopped making them before the EMP bomb," Max said to OC.

"Yeah, they did, but there's still a few circling around. Hot commodity and all; there's a girl at Jam Pony who hoards them religiously. I'm guessin' cause she's a skank and a half," OC muttered, causing both women to laugh lightly for the first time in hours. OC shrugged then, and added, "after you told me what happened, I figured you could use one. So I told her to give me some, or I'd break her pretty cooch."

Max laughed even more at that, and hugged OC to her affectionately. "What would I do without you," she said sweetly, feeling in better moods than she had all day. OC smirked, and patted her arm gently.

"Crash and burn, Boo. Crash and burn."

* * *

When White returned to the cell several hours later, Alec was standing against the pole, head down and arms behind him, just as he had been when the agent left. As the door creaked shut, Alec's green eyes flickered up from the floor to give White a calm look.

"I see you survived," Ames said, but 494 didn't respond. He merely stared with an empty look in his eyes. That made White smile because it told him Alec had resigned himself to his fate. The agent slowly approached Alec and pulled out the key for his chains, as well as a Taser weak enough only to stun the transgenic. Only, right when he was about to stab Alec, something flashed in the boy's eyes that White didn't have enough time to process, because in the next instant Alec barreled for him.

His arms came out from behind him, and White barely had enough time to see the chains coiled in Alec's right hand before the entire girth of it's bundle slammed into the side of his face. The minute White whirled around and slammed into the floor, Alec's thumb and pointer finger unlatched from the coiled chains, causing half of it to drop out of his grasp, subsequently thinning and elongating the chain. In the same fluid motion, he stepped forward and whipped it around White's neck as the agent tried to push himself up. Alec's knee pressed into White's back once his other hand caught the thick chains, and he pulled back on the metal while he shoved his knee hard into White's spine. White's spluttering for air lasted no more than a few breaths when Alec suddenly released the pressure on his back by bringing his leg even further up. And in a brutal motion, the transgenic slammed his boot into White's head at the same time that he loosened his grip on the chain, stomping the bastard's face into the cold stone beneath them.

He was out cold in an instant, but he didn't have a moment to revel in his accomplishment because he felt and heard movement behind him. Alec barely had the time to jerk forward, hopping over Ames as he brought his left foot up to slam a backwards roundhouse kick to his assailant. But the monstrosity that was his guard easily caught it, and almost slammed a fist into Alec's leg. Only, Alec had another surprise, and threw the lock he'd kept on his person straight into the man's face with all the strength in his limbs. The metal slammed into the guard's nose so hard, a sharp crunch broke through the scuffle as blood immediately started bursting from the broken appendage.

The pain forced the man's eyes shut as he stumbled backward and dropped Alec, whom immediately went back into his formation and spun around ferociously, landing a vicious kick in the man's temple with the heel of his boot. He went down, but Alec snatched the Taser from Ames, and jabbed it into the back of his neck for good measure. Heaving now, Alec withdrew the weapon and pocketed it in his back pocket, before he relieved both men of their guns. Once the safeties were latched, he stashed them within his belt, before he reluctantly withdrew from both men. He knew he should kill them both, but he couldn't spare the time to kill them quietly (which would be slow) because someone likely had heard the scuffle and were on their way. And he couldn't risk a bullet in fear of alerting others on the off chance he lucked out; not to mention, he needed all the ammo he could get.

Swiftly, he approached his open cell door, and cautiously peeked out both ways to make sure the coast was clear. When he saw no one, he quietly slipped out, and shut the two unconscious agents in his prison before he jogged down the hallway in a random direction. The corridor quickly reached a corner, and Alec slowed enough to throw a cautious glance around the edge. So far, so good. Quietly, he slipped around the edge, back against the wall as he stealthily crept through the corridor. Another intersection was coming up, and Alec took one of the guns out, pointed downward in his palms.

Before he even reached the pass, a body breached the opening, and a fleeting moment of recognition passed through both men before chaos ensued. Alec lunged, just as the tall, muscular male twisted his body, complimenting Alec's movement with practiced ease. A blur of limbs swiftly darted into and against one another, Alec's arm to the man's block, a knee to Alec's side that was blocked with his own fist. Jujitsu versus Tai Chi, a move of Tae Kwon Do to negate an assault of Karate, the battle raged on with each opponent using the entire facets of their skills to change the beat of war.

_'They're stronger than me,' _Alec admitted grimly, feeling each blow become more damaging than the next, even with his successful parries and counters. It didn't help his arms were already at half-health. He fired the gun off twice, but both times were foiled by the man's skilled parries. Alec twisted a roundhouse kick for the man's jaw, but a fist contacted with his thigh, just above his knee, sending him reeling back. His foot hadn't even hit the ground before the man surged forward, fists slamming into Alec's stomach to send his back straight into the wall, the pressure from the man crushing into his abdomen.

_'And faster,' _he added begrudgingly, as the man's elbow shot out and slammed into the soft spot of his wrist, forcing Alec to drop his gun. Frustratingly, the man's fists still held firm to Alec's stomach, grinding bruises into his skin and muscles. The transgenic quickly brought his fists up and slammed them into the man's forearms, at the beef of the muscle where he knew a sharp pressure point lied. With a grunt, the man's hands broke from Alec's sweater, and Alec instantly barreled his shoulder into the man's gut at the same time his leg twisted around the back of the guard's leg. In one fell swoop, Alec shoved forward and pulled his leg back to trip the man, and on the way down, he twisted his torso to slam the man's back into the tile floor.

Only the man's arms were gripped to his biceps, and just before he hit the ground, he yanked and shoved Alec to the side, sending the smaller transgenic flying into the wall with a sharp thunk. Alec felt the blow rattle his spine, and a sharp pulse shot through his skull as he slumped to the floor with a groan. Heavy, quick footsteps resounded from down the hall, and Alec mentally cursed that the scuffle had been loud enough to attract attention. Or maybe White was awake and alerting the troops. It was only a second before another man came into view, and Alec swiftly fought himself to his feet, and rolled along the wall to slip into the corridor he'd just been traveling down, just as the sound of gunfire rang in his ear.

His speed erupted, propelling him down the hallways that he began to weave through as they came up, in hopes that he could shake his pursuers before they caught sight of him again. Mind racing faster than his legs, he tried to decipher what type of building he was in, when the edges of his awareness detected the flash of metal that suddenly appeared in his line of view. Eyes widening, Alec reeled back, jerking his right shoulder to bring his torso out of harm's way in the blink of an eye, while the edge of a sword slashed through a few layers of skin in his midsection. His shoulders thudded with the wall, one hand coming up to gently cup the tear in his shirt, now with a thin, but pooling line of red seeping through it.

"_Fuck_, seriously?!" he whined, looking up with wide eyes as the sword pulled back at the same time a body came out from the corner's edge. It was a woman, with long, black, straight hair and tanned skin. Her black eyes were looking at him with predation as the blade was held up in a fighter's stance. Alec pushed his shoulders into the wall and shoved off it, and the woman instantly lunged forward, jabbing her sword for his side. He twisted to avoid it, only to have to immediately twist the other way as the blade was thrust toward his opposite oblique. The minute it pulled back, Alec threw his weight backward as the sword's tip came for his sternum; his palms planted, and he did a back flip, using the movement to kick the sword out of the girl's hand, and straight into the ceiling.

The minute he was upright, Alec drew his second gun and brought it up to shoot. A click sounded, right before the explosion of a bullet firing off, and the woman sprang forth, dodging the bullet by millimeters as she jumped into the wall. Her foot kicked off it, and in a disturbingly inhuman movement, she flipped onto the ceiling, boots planting against the roof so she could pull the blade from where it was embedded. _'Fucking ninjas,'_ Alec cursed as he fired another round off, only to have this one be deflected by the blade's metal that was descending, along with the woman, who twisted midair and landed on her feat, lithe as a fucking house-cat.

He fired off one more shot while pulling the Taser out, but just as before, she moved just in time and swung the sword out at him. Alec slid to the side, and twisted his hand as he brought the Taser up so the blade caught between the electric tongs. Their eyes made contact for a moment, each trying to read their opponents' next move. The woman pulled her blade back, and spun clockwise, before slashing horizontally at Alec on the backstroke. Alec twisted around to meet it, turning the Taser so it's tongs caught the blade again, and using her momentum, he forced her swing to continue; right over his head and around as he twisted the Taser down, forcing her grip to shift with the sword, and in the same fluid motion, he pushed his gun into her fist, forcing her blade to bury itself in her own side.

A choked noise left her as blood freed into her system, and Alec pressed down on the Taser, igniting the electricity along the blade to shock the wounded woman faster into death. When she slumped to the floor, he shut the Taser off and stuffed it back into his pocket, before withdrawing the sword from her gut. He could hear more people coming, so swiftly looked around his surroundings. Catching sight of a vent in the ceiling, he shoved the blade into the wall with as much strength as he could muster, until it was embedded deep into the stone. In one motion, he jumped into the opposite wall and kicked off it to gain enough height to land on the blade. It wiggled slightly from his weight, and he braced himself against the wall until it steadied a bit, before he turned his attention to the vent.

The screws were undone half way, before he used the butt of his gun to bash them off the rest of the way. It swung open with a creak, and reaching up, he hoisted himself into the vent just as three more goons came running into the hallway. It was only now that Alec noticed a dull throbbing in his upper bicep along with the sting of his stomach, and he briefly looked to notice his shoulder had been grazed by a bullet, likely when the first man shot at him. He didn't have time to dwell on it as more gunfire rang in his ears, piercing through the vents as he quickly crawled through them. The vent came to a T, and Alec didn't think twice before he placed his arms over the 2'x2' gap, and let his legs drop down before he let go. It fell straight down, and his eyes watched for the next break that came. When another intersection approached, he timed his feet to jerk apart and catch the opened sides. His knees bent swiftly to catch the momentum, aligning him perfectly to crouch either way in the new tunnels.

One seemed to drop off in a slope a few feet out, while the other led into another hallway's wall, likely a few floors below the one he was just on. He chose the latter path, and slammed his good shoulder into the grate, knocking it into the hallway so he could crawl into the corridor. Except the moment he stepped foot on the new white tile, he was broadsided. Alec didn't even see his attacker as strong hands came to grip the back of his head, and one of his arms, before he was mercilessly shoved forward. His body slammed into the wall with an echoing thud, his skull cracking against the stone with a sickening sound. It made his ears ring and his head reel with dizziness, and he didn't need to see to know that the warmth suddenly oozing over his right temple was his own blood.

The assailant didn't even give him a moment to recover, before Alec felt his arm jerked straight and bent backward too quickly and too roughly, and before he could help himself, he let out a blood-curdling scream as his arm dislocated from his shoulder. Alec's eyes widened in pain, fear, and realization. '_He's going to tear my arm off,' _he thought, as even through the white-hot pain, he felt his arm being torn and twisted. The fear jumpstarted his amygdala, and his leg came up reflexively, before his heel slammed back with such vicious force, he heard the snap of bones as the man's knee was bent backward. With a yell of rage and pain, the man sunk to his knees as he released Alec's arm.

The boy himself yelped in anguish as his arm fell limply, but he didn't stop as he pushed himself upright, tears stinging at his eyes from the vertigo his head was in, and brought his free hand up to slam into to man's jaw. The second the butt of the gun he still clung to passed through the bastard's jaw, Alec pulled the trigger, and a bullet fired into the side of the man's head. He fell backward limply as Alec staggered, heaving through blinding pain and he had to squint as blood oozed passed the outline of his eye, sweat and tears stinging his vision. He heard footsteps echoing again, and grimly admitted he wouldn't be able to fight anymore, so he rapidly retreated back to the vent, choosing to take the other way this time.

He slipped into the vent, groaning lowly as his entire body protested to crawling against hard metal, but the shouts rising in volume and growing closer motivated him on. When he reached the gap where the vents shot down further, he crouched onto the balls of his feet, and launched himself across the way, landing with an ungraceful thud. A harsh grunt left him as he forced himself to crawl on, before the tunnel suddenly sloped downward and gravity pulled him the rest of the way. What he didn't expect, was for the tunnel to suddenly level out before hurling his bodyweight into another grate.

It instantly gave to his momentum, popping off with a heavy clatter, and Alec's eyes widened when he was suddenly met with a thousand-foot drop into the rocky, raging waters below. Instinctually, his body twisted and his good arm latched it's hand around a protruding jagged rock, squeezing his fingers around it as his boots came to crash into grooves within the cliffside he was suddenly hanging off of. His heart was racing, breath just as quick, as he curled his face into his chest and closed his eyes to catch his thoughts.

When he opened them again, he peered over his bad shoulder, arm hanging limply and uselessly at his side, to glance at the ocean below him, the waves ferociously crashing over the sharp rocks at the base of this cliff. Then, he looked up to the looming facility he'd currently been imprisoned in. It looked like an old factory from this vantage point, all grey, ancient, and ominous in the dying sunlight. He could hear voices still, and a sharp breath stuttered from his lips as he pressed his forehead against a particularly uncomfortable rock.

_'I'm going to die,'_ he admitted to himself morosely. Whether he remained here and let those bastards retrieve him, or let go and fell to the violent waves beneath him, he knew he wasn't making it out of this. Hell, he couldn't guarantee they wouldn't just shoot him in the head and let him fall the rest of the way to cover up their mess. Well, fuck it. He wasn't going to let them decide his fate. Maybe they had forced him into this, but he'd rather let himself fall on his own terms than give them the satisfaction of finishing the job themselves. His eyes remained closed as he forced his breathing to even out.

_'I'm sorry, Maxie,'_ he thought bleakly, before he opened his eyes and looked up to see the face of a burly ethnic man staring down at him. Alec's eyes turned almost challenging, and a grim smirk passed his lips, before his leg muscles clenched and his knees bent a little more. Then, he pushed off the rocks as hard as he could and let go, hurling his body into the air just as the man reached out for him. Stunned, the guard picked up a walky-talky and pushed the button to speak to White.

"Sir, he just let go of the cliff. Should we pursue him?" White paused where he was, standing behind a desk as a staff member tended to the gash across his forehead. He batted her hand away for the moment as he thought.

"No. He won't survive the fall, and if he does, he'll drown before he can reach the shore," White said gruffly.

"And if he doesn't?" a sharp woman sitting behind the desk, near White's leaning form, asked coldly. Her features were as cold as she was, cropped auburn hair and red eyes piercing in nature, that White looked at her almost uncertainly, before he turned away without a word. Hearing nothing more from their bosses, the men in the vent retreated, just as Alec's body crashed into the water, sending frothy waves of white into the air.

**AN: THE END! ...JUST KIDDING! OMG I'M JUST KIDDING! I know, you can say it. I'm fucking evil. Don't worry guys, there's lots more to come, and I promise I'll try to make the update MUCH faster than this one was. I can also promise, in the next chapter, things will get better before they get worse again. SO as usual, please review and let me know how you felt, what you guys want to see or if you're still liking where this is going. Your thoughts matter to me! Love you all, and I'll update again soon, cause things are getting really, really good now ;D **


	7. Miracles Are Sometimes A Pain

He didn't die when he hit the water, something Alec found himself a little surprised about, and maybe a little disappointed. Because immediately, he felt the water tearing at his battered body, the currents yanking on his dislocated arm and piercing his bleeding veins with ice. It thinned his loss of blood, but simultaneously made his limbs sting with the pressure of fighting against it. The arctic waters of Seattle's pacific coast were unforgiving in the mid November weather, so when Alec's head broke the surface heaving for air, the sting of the cold autumn sea breeze only made the chilling waters worse.

His clothes were heavy with the soaking salt water, and his fatigued muscles were quickly seizing beneath the frigid temperature; their feeble flailing became involuntarily slower, as if his limbs were being dipped in heavy molasses. Everything hurt; his abdomen burned as it clenched to force his bruised legs to kick, his battered arms felt like they were breaking as he flapped with one working arm, the other tearing his nerves in burning, blistering pain as it bobbed unnaturally against his own movements and the pull of the ocean. His head was dizzy, ears ringing with a deafening tone above the fearful raging of the waves crashing with deafening booms against the rocky cliff side. He couldn't hold out much longer, and his treading against the swaying ocean was getting him nowhere.

When the inevitable pull came, Alec did the only thing left for him to do. He swallowed as much air as he could in a gasping breath, before the ocean yanked him under. He didn't know why he was holding his breath; maybe some ingrained survival instinct making him try to hold on to the very last second, or perhaps this was just a truly human reaction from the fear of drowning. Unable to bear the sting of freezing salt water, his eyes closed as he drifted down, and the panic his mind briefly felt over the prospect of drowning miraculously disappeared. A calm washed over him; it was quieter down here, no noise but the trickle of bubbles that occasionally slipped passed his lips. If he weren't about to die, he might of thought it safe and comforting in this darkness, were it also not for how fucking cold he was growing.

He thought of Max, and what she might be doing right now. _'Probably with Logan,'_ he thought grimly, unaware that Max was aware of his missing status and pining over him this very second. A heartbeat was taken to curse himself for his spiteful behavior and poor planning; he should have told Max where he was, and maybe none of this would of happened.

Body going lax, he felt almost blissful as his thoughts strayed to more pleasant memories. The time he and Max had dangled from the ceiling, fighting over a signed baseball while swinging uncontrollably against each other; it brought a broad smile to the boy's face. Or the time they were stuck in a closet together for over an hour. He had complained the entire time, but he wasn't really all that upset. It was nice to spend time with her he had to admit, even when she was infuriating. All the times they fought together, almost died together. How all of that somehow led to an abandon of common sense and principles, to them fucking desperate and heady against a damn club wall. He didn't regret it, and if this was the way he was going to go out, he was glad he had this memory as one of his last. The last thing he could recall before everything went truly black was the feel of Max's lips crushing against his own, and how her moans tasted on his tongue while he greedily gulped her savory flavor down.

Ice prickled his face, the sensation of air gusting over his wet flesh shocking his brain out of its dark haze. A keen pressure binding around his torso quickly followed it, and his brain couldn't decipher whether his bruised ribs or burning lungs hurt more in that instant. Then, he wretched, and freezing seawater came hurling out his mouth, the painful sensation of sand-paper tearing at his throat with the upcoming water. The pressure around his abdomen relieved, and Alec heaved a painful breath of air into his reluctant lungs, coughing and spluttering what remained up on his own. Everything was spinning, and as his mind jarred out of near death, the pain in his frozen limbs abruptly rushed back to him.

That's when he realized he was moving. A sharp yowl left him, and he grimaced heavily as his limp arm dragged against the movement. He forced his other hand to break out of the racing water, so he could grab the dislocated one, and cradle it to his chest to brace against the rushing water. Forcing his eyes open, Alec blinked away the water coating his eyelids, and squinted against the harsh wind as darkness swam passed him. Confused beyond belief, he looked around to see only the black ocean; his head had somehow breached the water, half his chest having broken the surface as well. His brows furrowed in confusion, and he looked down into the water, but couldn't see passed it.

However, he could feel something gripping around both his legs, and another force pressed into the small of his back. They felt like arms if he didn't know better, and that's when he heard a sound he'd only ever heard once before. It was an echoic whine, followed by the high-pitched clicking akin to a door creaking; noises that instantly reminded him of dolphins. _Or_ _mermaids_.

Alec smirked wider than he thought possible despite the pain, the only thought running through his head being, _'I don't fucking believe it.'_ He curled his shoulders slightly, bracing his body against the waves as his saviors became aware of his consciousness, and picked up their speed of travel. Their mysterious chattering continued, growing louder when they neared the shoreline, and to Alec's relief, he recognized it as one of Seattle's abandoned docks. They had brought him home.

When the ocean began to shallow, he felt the arms bracing his thighs shift, and for a moment, he was suspended before the couple broke the surface of the water, and their arms came to support under his arms and against his back. The female was ginger with him, holding above his shoulder once a sharp hiss escaped him as she touched his dislocated arm. They brought him all the way to the banks, and even helped him up the shore until he was at the shallow cascades of the waves. He sank heavily into the sand once they dropped him, being too tired to care about how wet he was or the muddy sand now clinging to his pants.

The male receded back into the water, lingering to wait for his mate, who watched Alec with a small smile on her face as he heaved for air. Slowly, his eyes flickered up to her face. "How did you find me?" he asked weakly. Her smile remained strong as she bent over, and brought a hand up to caress ginger fingers over his right temple. He gasped from sharp pain, and jerked back slightly as she pulled her fingers away and curled her hand to show him the crimson staining her fingertips.

_'They tracked me by my blood?'_ he thought in awe, staring at his own blood before his eyes flickered up to the mermaid's face. _'Of course…they've probably got like, shark DNA or something,'_ he realized; they could likely smell and track him from miles away. The transgenic was suddenly touched with a fierce wave of gratitude and affection.

"Thanks," he murmured appreciatively. She smiled, and nodded to him, and the look in her eye told him everything. He didn't need to understand her to know that, once upon a time, he had done the same for her, and she couldn't be happier to return the favor. Her smile lingered on him a moment more, before she couldn't hold her breath any longer, and retreated back into the water to join her mate. With a final nod from each of them, and a wave from Alec, the fish people returned to the ocean, disappearing beneath the black water to leave Alec to fend for himself. He couldn't have asked for more.

Taking another heavy breath, he momentarily let his body collapse against the sand, staring up into the night sky. He couldn't believe he had made it this far, and every fiber of his being wanted to just end his journey here and go to sleep. But he knew he couldn't do that, so begrudgingly, he forced himself to his feet. Immediately, he winced, body protesting heavily, but he forced it to work nonetheless. He desperately wanted to pop his shoulder back into place, and he tried a few of the easier ways, only to scream out in immense pain. He knew it was unlikely to work, but he had to try. Unfortunately, he was too frigid, and his muscles too tight; he would only end up hurting himself even more if he tried again, so his first priority was to seek warmth and dryness.

He limped all the way back to the city. What was once an easy trek, now became an endless path in Hell. He could feel prominent bruising all over his body, and he was still steadily bleeding from his stomach and head, though his shoulder wound had stopped oozing a while ago. His other shoulder was severely mangled, being left neglected in it's dislocated state, so Alec kept it cradled gently to his torso. His skin was pale, taut, and ghastly looking, and his lips were blue from the cold. But his neck _burned _where he had been branded, throbbing heavily with each pump of his heart. By the time he reached town, his head had started to swim again from the stress and pain in his body, and he was nearly positive he looked like a phantom.

The ordinaries noticed too, and he could feel their stares burn into his skull as he sulked by them. Quiet murmurs and cautious glares followed him with every hobble on his bad leg, and his fuzzy brain began to slowly calculate how likely it was he was getting out of here in one piece. He could already tell they weren't going to be friendly, could practically smell their fear, hate, and mistrust. It wasn't like his barcode was hidden, and with grim understanding, he stopped and glared at the faces slowing looming in closer to him. They knew what he was, and his glazed eyes counted several "fearless" men surrounding him. There was no way he would survive this.

Just when he felt their wills ready to attack, a sharp, loud honking shocked every male out of their transfixed concentration. Even Alec jolted a bit, swaying a little as a car steered into the crowd of people out of nowhere, forcing several of the humans to jump out of the way, or forfeit their own life.

"Get in," a shrill voice shouted, before the driver reached back and popped the back door open for Alec to climb in to. The transgenic had his eyes narrowed on the blonde haired man seated in the front, his sluggish brain not fully processing what was going on until one word left his mouth.

"Normal?" he said, voice a mixture of relief and serious confusion. His instincts quickly brought him back to the situation, as a few of the men behind him drew closer, and those that had been forced out of the way regrouped. Alec didn't hesitate again, and launched his body into the car, before firmly slamming the car door shut with his good arm as Normal twisted the steering wheel around, taking off down the street recklessly. Alec looked out the back window until they were well away from the angered crowd, and no police were in pursuit of them, which finally allowed Alec to sigh and relax a little. He sunk down in the seat, turning over to sit properly on his ass, and looked to the man in the front seat.

"Man, I have _never_ been happier to see you, Normal," Alec murmured appreciatively before adding, "what are you even doing here?" Normal had been viciously focused on driving until Alec's voice broke through the silence, and the older man looked up to glance at his passenger in the rear-view mirror.

"Are you alright, Golden Boy?" he asked fretfully, which coming from Normal, just made him sound annoyed. Alec knew better though, because Normal's voice always was a bit softer for Alec, which made the transgenic chuckle lightly. Immediately, he grimaced once his stomach gave a painful throb, and it took a moment to stifle the pain before he slowly opened his eyes to consider his old boss thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he said weakly, but Normal wasn't convinced. Alec was lucky Normal had been doing a supply run in this neck of the city; he had a bit of a fetish for the deep-fried seafood they had in this area. Bought some for himself every two weeks. Lo and behold, he finds his precious Golden Boy near death in the middle of the street, with a bunch of racists ready to finish the job.

"I should take you to the hospital," the human said attentively.

"No," Alec immediately forced out, rolling a bit more onto his side to help cradle his arm against the ungraceful car ride. "No hospitals," he repeated, quelling his panting breath a bit while he spoke. Normal's face scrunched in slight frustration, but he didn't argue more; he knew better than most how prejudiced things still were in the city. Taking his Golden Boy to a hospital could turn out as bad as leaving him surrounded by those men would have been.

"Should I take you to your own people," Normal asked hesitantly. Alec paused a moment, deliberating, before he shook his head resolutely.

"You'll never get passed the Sector gates with me like this, and it's likely the good ol' residents of TC will assume you did this to me," Alec murmured regretfully. Normal tapped a finger on the steering wheel nervously as he drove.

"I could take you back to my house," he offered awkwardly, and Alec had to fight not to fidget uncomfortably at the suggestion. That's all he needed, for Normal to have a damn "gladiator dream" with him sleeping in the guy's guest room. He almost shuddered at the thought.

"Thanks, but that's alright."

"Well, forgive me, but what do you want me to do?" Alec bit his lip at the frustrated question, because he certainly wasn't making things any easier for Normal. He knew where he had to go, but he really, _really_ didn't want to go there. There wasn't much of a choice at the moment, and he inwardly cursed before letting out a heavy, exasperated sigh.

"Take a left at the next crossroad," Alec began to direct.

When they got to the familiar old house, Normal pulled to a stop at the curb, and peered out his passenger side window with a scrutinizing brow. "Are you sure this is safe, Golden Boy?" the man asked, hesitant to let his favorite mutant go into such a run down place. Alec smiled fondly at the sentiment as he scooted over to the door, and opened it a fraction of an inch.

"Yeah, don't worry Normal. I'll be alright; I have a…friend, who lives here," he said, tripping up slightly on what to call the occupant of the house. Normal didn't seem convinced at first, but finally nodded in compliance and watched as Alec got out of the car. Before he shut it, Alec turned around and peered into the interior.

"Thanks again. I really owe you one for this," he said, and he could have sworn Normal blushed slightly. But the shrewd man merely waved him off, and Alec shut the door with a slight grimace, before he hobbled his broken body up the creaking steps. When he reached the door finally, he swayed heavily as sever fatigue washed over him. It took all his conscious willpower to slump into the doorframe, and Alec awkwardly knocked on the door with his good hand, that was currently trapped under his own body weight. It was a few moments before the door swung open, and when it finally did, Alec's weary eyes slowly trailed up to look at a very dumbfounded Logan.

"Alec?" he said hesitantly, taking in the boy's battered appearance. "What the hell happened?" he asked incredulously, rushing forward to help the boy stand once Alec nearly crashed face first into his foyer. Immediately after Logan's hands gripped around him, Alec let out a startling, pain-filled cry that had Logan reeling back on his decision. His hands let go, as Alec gingerly maneuvered himself through the door, but it wasn't even a full second before he had to lean heavily into Logan again. This time, the older male took more caution in where he placed his hands.

"Date gone wrong," Alec explained dismissively, his bitter sarcasm coating the wounded whine in his voice. Somehow, Alec managed to get his good arm around Logan's shoulder, and the journalist's other arm remained lightly holding Alec's upper rib cage as he guided Alec into a seat. _'Just great,'_ they both thought, before Alec was eased into a chair. The transgenic grunted in pain while Logan went to shut his front door. When he returned, Alec was half-passed out, but dutifully pried his eyes open to hazily stare at Logan. "Hey, you have a fireplace here, right?" the boy asked.

"Yeah," Logan said, quirking an eyebrow, but he didn't really have to ask why. Alec was frosty pale, his lips were still blue, and his clothes were still wet; he also looked like, at any moment, he was going to shiver to death. Without another word, Logan crossed his living space to enter the common room and start a fire. The whole while, Alec's eyes followed him until he was in the other room. A few minutes later, Alec could see the orange glow flickering in from the other room, and Logan returned to help him up and bring him to the building fire. When Alec was seated on the floor in front of it, Logan made to leave, but the transgenic's still working hand was suddenly around his wrist.

"Wha- Where are you going," Alec asked unsteadily, catching Logan off guard.

"To call Max. She's been looking for you all day," he said simply, and made to shake Alec off when the boy's fingers tightened around his skin. It was surprising how much strength Alec still had left when he seemed so weak.

"No, don't call her," Alec almost pleaded.

"What?! _Why_? She's been worried sick about you," Logan snapped defensively, and Alec hesitated. He slowly licked his lips, thinking his options over. He really didn't want to face Max yet, not like this. It was selfish, but he couldn't deal with their state of limbo right now. His green eyes shined softly with the orange haze of the fireplace as he searched Logan's face.

"I need your help first. My arm is dislocated…it has been for too long. I need you to…pop it back into place," Alec said slowly. The alarmed surprise was evident in Logan's expression as the two stared, frozen in place as if the other were an unfamiliar enemy. Then, Logan finally relented, and eased his posture back to face Alec. Alec swallowed heavily and nodded.

"I need you to cut my shirt off," he said sourly. Logan almost protested, but Alec's eyes suddenly dropped to the floor, and something about the boy's posture made him shut his mouth. He was certain Alec wasn't used to asking for help, and it probably gnawed at him worse that he had to ask it of a human, no less. Now, he could almost see why Alec was reluctant to let him call Max, but he dismissed the thought once he turned to find a pair of working scissors. He'd rather not think of them as animals with ingrained strength hierarchies, no matter how accurate such a description might be.

Alec let his gaze trail into the fireplace while he waited, and the warmth of the flames felt like heaven on earth. He could feel the heat defrosting his rigid limbs, breathing life into his cheeks, and he was certain a bit of color was returning to his face. The brink of death was seeping away from him, but sleep would not leave the tips of his consciousness, begging him to give in. He did not, and Logan's heavy footsteps pulled him out of the fog. Alec's head turned to see Logan approaching him, and the man knelt down by Alec before he brought the scissors between them.

Alec's sweater and shirt beneath it were cut in half, and down the sleeves so it slipped easily from the boy's body. What came to view underneath momentarily had Logan covering his mouth. Alec's right shoulder had a tiny gash in it, no bigger than an inch in any direction; it was red an angry with smeared blood around the skin. His left shoulder looked horrid. It was severely discolored, an ugly brown that Logan could clearly see had torn ligaments beneath the surface, and his arm was hanging limply in his own skin, stretching the abused flesh and muscle even more. But that wasn't even the worst of it.

The boy's entire body was discolored in a similar fashion; angry blacks, blues, and purples covering too many spots on his arms and across his stomach. In the middle of a nasty cluster of brown was a shallow, long, thin gash that was still bleeding onto his tainted skin. He had an obvious concussion, if the nasty gash in his right temple was anything to go by. That entire portion of his messy hair was caked in both dry and damp blood, fresh coatings steadily seeping over the raw, opened wound. And Logan hadn't missed the burn mark in Alec's neck, identical to the one Max had seared into her hand. He didn't comment though; now wasn't the time.

Alec scooted closer to the fire, leaning his dislocated shoulder closest to it, so it could warm up faster. Briefly, Alec's gaze flickered to his still damp pants, and Logan followed his gaze, before he sighed heavily. They didn't speak as Alec unbuttoned and unzipped his trousers, before he shakily hoisted his pelvis up so Logan could tug the sandy, salty, wet pants off. His boxers almost tugged off with it, but Alec managed to catch them before either was scarred, sacrificing his own ass that collided with the wood once the support of his hand was gone. Alec adjusted his boxers more comfortably while Logan fetched a pair of sweatpants, giving his arm time to warm up and ease its shivering tendons and muscles.

When Logan returned, Alec looked up at him and nodded. "Okay…" he muttered, before rising off the floor and walking over to the table. With previously lost nimbleness, Alec slid onto the surface of a table, and waited patiently for Logan to clear the cluttered papers off it, before he laid back. Using his other hand, he gingerly moved his limp arm off the table, and looked at Logan as he fought back the heavy winces threatening to break surface. "Grab my arm around the wrist," he muttered, waiting as Logan did what he said. He let out a shaky breath at the change of pressure, "Now, hold it tight…and pull straight toward you. Slowly."

Logan did as he was told, and Alec had to bite on his own tongue to fight back the cry of pain threatening to leave him. He couldn't hold it back any longer when Logan straightened his arm out and continued to pull, but thankfully Logan didn't stop when Alec started screaming at the top of his lungs until they both heard the joint pop back into place. Logan immediately let go, and Alec rolled onto his other side, facing away from Logan as he gingerly brought his fixed arm into his chest, his hurt-filled cries lingering in the tense air between them.

It took a few moments for things to quiet down, and a tension grew over Alec. He didn't want to face Logan again after screaming so loud, but carefully, he sat up on the table and twisted around. However, he didn't meet Logan's eyes when he asked, "do you have any ice?" Logan quietly left to go fetch what he needed, and Alec took that time to return to the fireplace. As he was still in his boxers, he bent over to retrieve the sweats Logan had gotten him, left on the floor moments before. He moved his arm gingerly, subtle relief washing over him to be able to use it again. But he was careful while he dressed, because he didn't want to fuck it up anymore.

Logan returned with some ice wrapped in a towel, and handed it to Alec so he could apply it to his shoulder. Now more comfortable with pants on, Alec sat down and gingerly held the ice to his bare shoulder. His eyes remained transfixed on the fireplace, but he saw out of the corner of his eye that Logan crouched in front of him to come eye-level with the avoidant super soldier.

"I have to call Max now, Alec," Logan said somberly, and Alec let out a bitter chuckle.

"Why? So she can unleash her wrath on me while I'm a broken rag doll? No thank you," Alec muttered dejectedly. Logan frowned at the biting sarcasm.

"Alec-"

"No, Logan," Alec griped agitatedly, before sighing and falling back against the hard wooden floor. He didn't care about the lack of comfort in the slightest; he had a fire. He felt like the fucking king of the world right now. Besides, he'd had much worse in the past. "Just…give me a few hours to rest before you call the cat on me," he muttered sleepily, as his eyes involuntarily closed and he let go of the ice. With relief finally setting in his worst injury and the warmth radiating around him, he was out instantly, causing a bit of alarm to spark up in Logan.

"No, Alec, wait!" But it was no use, the boy was lost to the world, and Logan inwardly cursed himself. He shouldn't have let Alec fall asleep with a concussion, but he didn't think he could have kept Alec up, even if he tried harder. Because not even cold ice could keep him alert. All of his vitality seemed to have been taken from him on his journey here, and by the state of his body, Logan could only imagine why. By the burn mark alone it was obvious White or the Conclave were involved.

Frowning, he bit his lip and rubbed the back of his neck as he stood, deliberating what he should do. On the one hand, he knew he should call Max. She was running all over the place looking for Alec, and he could end his love's strife with one quick phone call. He also didn't want to lie to her, and he still had to monitor the club for her in a few hours. He loved her too much, that even thinking of betraying her made him nauseas.

On the other hand, he knew Max was harder on Alec than she was on anyone else. His assumption that she would, quite literally, kick him while he was down wasn't too farfetched, which made Logan hesitate to call her. Alec needed rest; that was plain as day, and he didn't need the added stress of dealing with an angry boss on top of being Death's slippery mistress. Then again, maybe there was a different reason entirely to Alec's avoidant behavior, but Logan was no expert on the matter, even with his extended experiences with their kind. It was in this time of contemplation, that Logan took a moment to really look at Alec, passed the bruises and broken flesh.

He looked almost peaceful in his sleep, like maybe the horrors he had lived with his entire life didn't exist in this state of limbo. That made him look serene, and in the orange fire light, rather beautiful. It was undeniable how attractive the young man was, even for a casual observer like Logan. He had enhanced genetics to thank for that near perfection beauty, just like Max. And it was only going to get better for him. Logan just turned 27 a few days ago, and had passed his prime, but Alec was still young, only 21 and just starting to bulk up. Already, he had started to fill out in his torso and arms; he was thicker than the skinny kid Logan had met last year, more defined in face and toned body. What he would look like when he was Logan's age wasn't something the human wanted to imagine, because there was simply no comparison.

Even though Max had assured him nothing was going on between the two, everything about Alec screamed _'threat'_ to a nerdy guy like Logan. But he was too good of a guy to hold something like that over Alec's head. _'You're being foolish,' _he told himself; _'Max loves you.' _Quietly, Logan bent over and lifted the ice off the floor, cradling it in his hands as he looked over Alec's half-clothed form one more time. Then, he sighed heavily and rubbed his mouth wearily.

"You owe me big time for this one, Alec," he mumbled begrudgingly, before he wandered off to put the ice away. He returned to Alec with a spare pillow in hand, and gently lifted the sleeping man's head up to shove it underneath his skull. Logan frowned at that, because the usually alert and hard-to-trick soldier didn't stir even the slightest. Standing up, he dutifully walked over to his cellphone before he made a call. He pushed his glasses up with a few fingers so he could forcefully pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Hello? Dr. Shankar," Logan said once someone answered the other line. He dropped his glasses to look back at Alec as he said, "I was wondering if you could do me a favor and swing by my house…yes, it's an emergency," he murmured to the busy doctor's light prodding. A relieved sigh left him when she said she'd be over quickly, and before he hung up he added, "And bring supplies for everything."

* * *

"You'll be fine. I'll be right outside, waiting around the corner in the alleyway if you need me," Max said encouragingly as they stopped a block away from Mixer. OC took a steadying breath, before she nodded at Max. Her thin black, glittering dress matched the pumps she wore, and she adjusted her wristlet nervously. She was a tough girl, but even she wasn't keen on the prospect of going in alone against a mysterious woman who could apparently beguile super humans into missing persons cases. Women happened to also be _her_ weakness, but she smiled to Max nonetheless.

"Get Eyes Only on me?" OC asked, and Max nodded with her own morose smile. OC turned and walked toward the club to get in the waiting line while Max phoned Logan. She played with the zipper of her jacket while the dial tone lingered on, until finally she heard his voice. He sounded….tired.

"Hey," she said hesitantly, looking over her should to see she'd lost sight of OC. "Original Cindy is going in now. Can you get your eyes on the place?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I got it," Logan murmured, typing on his keyboard with one hand to bring up the club monitor screens. "I'll keep watch over her. Don't worry, Max," he added softly. Max nodded, even though he couldn't see it. His tone sounded dull, and that made her irrationally worried.

"Did you find anything yet?" she asked hesitantly, heart pounding as the question lingered in the air. All she could do was hope he hadn't seen her dirty secret, and his hesitance to answer made her heart sink.

"No," he finally answered, voice gruff and cut-off. "Nothing yet," he added, rubbing the back of his head a little as he looked toward his common room. Alec was asleep again, the exam with Dr. Shankar having been strenuous on all of them. The boy was fussy, and Logan found himself drained from simply watching him get stitched up and prodded at. After a few painkillers, Alec was out again, but Logan still needed to be awake for an indefinite amount of time. He sighed softly.

"I'll call if I do. Be careful," he added hurriedly. Then, he hung up and let out the shakiest breath. He rubbed a hand through his hair, telling himself the same line that he had been for the last hour. Not telling Max he'd found Alec (or rather Alec found him) was the right decision because she would lose concentration on the mission if she knew, and they still needed the kidnapper. That he was only going to wait until the mission was over, until morning to tell her, and she would forgive him in the end. He still felt nauseas, but he wasn't the only one.

Max lowered the phone from her ear, expression nerve-wrecked and disgruntled. Her entire body seemed to deflate with defeat. Logan had sounded off, and all her brain could come up with is that he had seen the footage. Their filthy grinding had been caught on camera, and Logan had seen the whole thing. He knew her dirty secret and could barely handle speaking to her. '_Get your head in the game, girl,'_ Max scolded herself, shaking her head to rid herself of such troubling thoughts. She slipped around the corner of the building she was hiding behind, and scaled up to the roof. She picked a perch that was close to Mixer's roof, but still allowed her to remain hidden. All the while she waited for the signal, her mind fretted over Logan's behavior, and her own incorrigible apprehension over Alec's disappearance.

After awhile, Max got bored. She wasn't used to sitting by idly for so long, and it was starting to make her fidget. Anxious frustration seeped into her core, and she had to fight back the urge to call Logan every five seconds. _Fuck_, she was acting like a damn girl! Pining and whining about her love life, which had been in shambles since she met Logan, but had now reached an all time low. She needed to keep focus on the mission, but every second that ticked by just made her more frenzied. There had been no word of their mystery kidnapper showing up, and it had been hours. It was partly why she had an unnecessary urge to call, but so far, two phone calls to OC and one to Logan had revealed nothing, and she could tell they were both just as frustrated as she was.

By 2am, there was no sign of their suspect and the crowds were starting to wane. Even though she was itching to move on, she was still reluctant to call it a night. It seemed there wasn't much to do though, and she was through wasting time on this plan. OC joined her where they had parted, and Max was immediately ready to storm over to Logan's to begin a plan B. It was OC who caught her wrist the moment she twisted around in frenzy.

"Hey, I know you wanna find Alec, Boo… but not all of us are super human like you. Give Logan a break; he's been stressin' over those computers all night for you," her friend tried to coax. Max couldn't be deterred though, and with an apologetic smile, yanked her arm away from her friend. She shook her head resolutely.

"I can't. I'm sorry. Can you get home alright?" Max asked, and with a frown, OC nodded to her. They parted ways, and Max flew toward Logan's place on her motorcycle. She knew there wasn't much that could get done in the wee hours of the morning, but she needed a game plan. Her entire world felt out of sort without something to guide her forward, and right now, they were quite literally back to square one.

When she arrived at Logan's a little passed 2:30, she called the man's cellphone to make sure he was still up. And she didn't delay in her footsteps as it rang, so by the time a sleepy-sounding Logan picked up the phone, Max was already standing outside his front door.

"I'm coming in," was the brief warning she provided, before trying for the doorknob. It was locked, and she very nearly slammed her shoulder into it to break the bloody thing open, but the scratching on the other side of the door made her pause long enough to hear the locks come undone. On the other side, a very haggard, disgruntled Logan stood, eyes half closed and mouth slightly agape as he gawked at her. He was _just_ about to fall asleep when his phone blared to life beside him, waking him with a start to let him know that Max was right at his door.

Not that at any other time he wouldn't have loved the surprise visit, but now was really the worst time for this to be happening.

"We need to talk," she said evenly, before she barreled forward to get through the door. Upon instinct, Logan's foggy brain forced him to reel back, his Henley and PJ pant covered body dodging the threat of Max's body drawing too close. His arm swung the door shut behind her as she trudged through his foyer, and he swiftly followed after her, though there was a distinct bubble between the two.

"Wait, Max-" he whined, but it was too late. She had crossed the bridge between the messy dining room and his living room, where Alec was sleeping upon the floor, still right next to the fire, which had died an hour ago into nothing but ash and embers. Still, his face was tilted toward its fading warmth, body covered by a thick quilt Logan had laid over him some time after Dr. Shankar had left.

Max hadn't expected to see him, so there was no way to predict (let alone control) the throb that erupted through her heart and shot straight into her groin at the sight of him. It was immediate, and sent a hot flush to her cheeks as she stood there, staring dumbfounded at the quiet, safe form slumbering peacefully beneath a bundle of blankets. Relief washed over her, a momentary calm allowing a small smile to pass her lips. Then, the rage set in, because she had been busting her ass all night on futile projects to find him when, here he was, taking a fucking nap!

Without thinking, she surged forward, skipped half a step, and sent a hard jab into Alec's rib with the tip of her boot. The reaction was instant, a sharp yell piercing through the silent house as Alec's body jolted upright. _"What the fuck,"_ he snarled loudly; a rabid dog growing viciously defensive over it's wounded body. Wild eyes snapped up to Max, and he barred his teeth in an angry snarl to match her irate glare. Those angry emerald eyes crashed onto Logan as Alec cradled his wounded oblique.

"I told you," he quipped sharply. It caused Max to falter slightly, but she wasn't ready to give up her anger yet. She reeled quickly on Logan.

"How long has he been here?"

"A few hours," Logan muttered tiredly.

"_And you didn't think to call me!?"_ Max spat, unable to control her raging feet as they stalked her closer to Logan. The older man quirked a single brow in question, and leaned back slightly from the imposing fury of the smaller woman.

"Yeah, Max. I did, but Alec asked me not to, since he was afraid of how angry you'd be. Judging by your behavior now, I have to say I think I made the right call," he chided calmly, his voice sounding kind enough to be annoyingly condescending. It made her anger immediately deflate to flare up into something else entirely; offended embarrassment.

"_Hey._ I never said I was afraid," Alec huffed indignantly as he sat up. The covers hiding his upper body subsequently fell into his lap, exposing the gray T-shirt he now wore to hide his colorful wounds and the bandages that covered the worst of them. He winced when the gauze covering his neck began to itch over the burned flesh, and he reached up with his left hand to peel it off. Max had turned around just in time to see the mark that came into view. Everything else was forgotten as her face fell.

"Alec," she breathed regretfully, instantly coming to his side and dropping to her knees beside him. Mildly surprised at the change in atmosphere, Alec tilted his chin up to cast a curious gaze upon her face. When he realized what she was looking at, his hand subconsciously came up to cover his blackened skin.

"White?" she asked, and Alec nodded to her morosely. She knew what that meant, and her heart plummeted into her stomach. Her eyes trailed lower on him, a bitter understanding as to why he yelled so loud when she kicked him surfacing. She took note of the heavy bruising she could see around his elbows, and wondered how many others he carried in hidden places. "Is anything else-?" she asked thickly, hands reaching the hem of his shirt to pull it up.

"No- Max, I'm fine," he muttered quickly, his own hands coming up to grasp gently around her own and pull them away from the thin barrier he had left. Her gaze flickered up to his face for a brief moment, and she pouted a little before looking back to his shirt.

"Alec, let me see," she pressed, trying to shake his hands off to push up on his shirt again. He almost laughed a little as he fought her, but it was more out of discomfort than humor.

"No, really. I'm alright! Logan and Dr. Shankar already patched me up, so unless you're going to kiss it better…" They both froze for a moment at the careless words, and Max instantly let go of him, recoiling to slump onto her own heels as if he'd violently shocked her.

"What?" she stuttered, and Alec looked at her with bewildered eyes for a moment. Then, he huffed and flopped back down onto the pillow set out for him.

"Nothing," he griped bitterly, eyes focusing on the black and red embers left in the fireplace. "Clearly I'm still delusional from the near _hypothermia_ I suffered through," he punched out. There was an awkward silence between the two that Logan was suddenly hyper-awake for. Blinking, he looked from one to the other, both completely oblivious of his presence. It wasn't unusual for Alec to flirt. Granted, he never really flirted with Max before that Logan saw, besides the one misunderstanding he had seeing Alec leave Max's apartment.

But this was a throwaway comment, one he never would have thought deeper on were it not for Max's odd reaction. Normally, she would have hit Alec or dismissed him with her own snappy quip, before shoving his hands away and taking a look. This was…wrong, and he cleared his throat to get their attention. Alec's eyes barely flickered in his direction, but Logan paid attention as Max's head quickly screwed around. She looked up at him with wide, startled eyes, and something else immediately rose in them that he didn't want to name. Guilt.

It was confirmed by the way she quickly looked away, casting her eyes downward into the blanket curled around Alec's feet. _'Maybe there is something I don't know about,'_ he thought bleakly, and the notion made him swallow heavily. Forcing his eyes onto Alec, Logan finally said, "I think it's time you told us what happened."

Alec didn't take his hard glare off the bright embers, and something dulled in his fluid eyes at the prospect of reliving the last twenty-four hours. But he swallowed quietly, and with a neutral voice, said, "Yeah…. yeah, alright."

**AN: So whatcha guys think!? I'm hoping you guys enjoyed this chapter, because it was a lot of fun to write! Max and Alec are finally together again, yay! And tensions are growing ^.^ Please let me know if you guys are still enjoying this story, or want to see anything happen in the future! I'll keep writing in it anyway, because I actually love where I've gotten with it, but knowing I'm giving you guys something worthwhile helps! And once again, thank you all for reviewing, favoriting, and following.**

**And a special thanks to recicup and scmumsy for reviewing on every chapter thus far! You guys rock ;)**


	8. Nuances

**AN: Hey guys! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Sorry for the slow update. I know this one is shorter than the last few have been, but I said all I needed to say in it, and it kinda felt right to end it where I did. I promise I'll make the next one longer to make up for it, but I didn't want to disrupt the mood of this chapter by adding more to it. I hope you like it! **

Alec told them how he and Sketchy went to Mixer to find Lily. He skipped the details of their bromance, to when he spotted Lily and went to the bar to observe her better. How she found him instead, and put him under hypnosis so he followed her without a thought out the door. If he had to be honest, he mentioned the kiss just to see Max's reaction. She was a schooled poker player, but he swore he saw her eyes twitch, narrowing just enough to give them a deathly stare. Logan didn't notice, for he was too focused on the story, and Alec kept going with his tale, but he knew.

Neither interrupted him as he recounted being drugged and shocked into unconsciousness, before waking up chained to a pole. He took care with the details of his encounter with White, and quoted verbatim what had been said before he'd been poisoned and left for dead. Max's eyes flickered to his burn mark, her expression unreadable, and Alec felt the need to carefully skim his fingertips around the tender edges of the mark. He cleared his throat slightly when he dropped his hand, and spoke of how he broke free of his constraints, battled his way out, and fell to his death, only to be saved by mermaids and delivered to Logan through an old friend.

The pair looked at him soberly for a long time, digesting all they had come to know, and Alec kept his eyes lowered in recount of his trying tale. Logan was the first to break the silence, at first to simply tell Max the state Alec had come to him in, and how he called Dr. Shankar to patch him up before letting him sleep the worst of it off. Then, he turned to Alec after a brief pause and said, "So this was definitely a matter of the breeding cult? And they were interested in your DNA?"

Alec nodded somberly. "Dunno why specifically, but I'm bettin' it's got something to do with that snake, and whatever it was they passed into me through it's blood," Alec said quietly.

"There's more of them," Max interjected, making both boys look to her. Her gaze flickered from Logan to Alec as her fingers fisted in her jacket tighter. "Lily, the guards at the factory…there's more of them than we ever anticipated, and they're still recruiting more and more." She paused, releasing her fingers from her jacket so she could turn her palm over, and run a finger over the spot where she held her own burn mark. "Each one of them has one of these; it's a part of the initiation process. They get sick, just like you did. I saw it happen to White's son."

"The strong survive, and the weak die. That's why Sanderman left, right? Because what's his name, crazy face wouldn't have survived," Alec asked, his finger wiggling along with his scrambled thought process. Max nodded, and looked up to Logan.

"And they were fully expecting me to die when I accidentally got burned, but I didn't get sick at all. They were pretty pissed about it, too."

"You think they started testing more of us because of you?" Alec questioned, his brows furrowing in contemplation. She turned sharply to look down at him.

"It makes sense, doesn't it? They all get sick with the snake's blood, but I don't? Then people start disappearing, and they're interested to see how _you_ react to it?"

"A virus," Logan breathed. "It has to be a virus, or some kind of pathogen the snakes are carriers of. They're building up tolerances to it, and didn't expect any of the transgenics to have the immunities. But why?" Now his brows were furrowed as well, and he felt a headache coming on as he wearily rubbed his fingers against his forehead. "It doesn't make any sense," he mumbled.

"Well whatever it is, it's not going to be good. We need to find out what they're up to before it's too late," Max pressed.

"And whatever it is, you're definitely a part of it Max. You can bet your sweet ass of that," Alec mused with a sly, almost chiding look. Max glared at him sharply for a moment, but ignored his baiting this time. Logan sighed heavily and moved his hand to rub the back of his neck.

"Fine, so we've got our work cut out for us. We need to get our hands on one of those snakes, because it'll be much easier to figure this out once we know what it is they're using. In the mean time, I'll see what I can dig up – but tomorrow. Right now, I really need to get some sleep," Logan strategized tiredly, before he shuffled away from the pair and waved his hand dismissively. Max laughed a little, a more genuine sound than she'd had in days, and Logan stopped to give her a curious look. She continued to chuckle at him, and that bright smile of hers brought a warm one to Logan's lips.

Alec watched their tender stare and warm smiles quietly. A beast roared up within him, venomous with jealousy and aggravation, but he remained perfectly still where he was. He even forced his eyes to look away, but a heavy pit developed in the center of his stomach. He hated the way they looked at each other, though he had never noticed before. All of a sudden though, it mattered and he found himself feeling sick over the fact that Max looked at Logan with love bright in her eyes.

"I would like to sleep in my own bed," Alec cut in sharply, breaking the momentary trance the lovebirds were in. Their eyes slowly turned to him, and he in turn twisted his bright eyes up to meet them. An awkward pause rested between the trio, before Logan nodded and waved them off again.

"Goodnight. I suppose I'll see you two in the morning," Logan said, eyes lingering on Max once more. He desperately wanted to touch her, so he settled for a brief squeeze of her clothed shoulder, which left them both feeling emptier than before. Then, he disappeared up the stairs to his bedroom. Max had a bittersweet smile on her face when she turned her eyes back to Alec. Her face fell as she looked at him, his expression unreadable as he stared at her.

"It's cold outside," Max said finally.

"I'll borrow one of Logan's jackets," Alec responded, his tone unnaturally reserved. Max looked away from him, before she nodded a little and walked away from him. He gingerly rose from the floor, leaving his makeshift bed where it was. The pair was stiff as they walked to the door, Max not once looking back to Alec. He swiped a coat off the old wooden coat rack on his way out, and slipped his soaked shoes on, before he locked the doorknob and left the safety of Logan's house. She got on her bike and started the engine, pausing long enough for Alec to ease himself onto the back. And she thanked the Blue Lady that Alec was behind her, because she had to close her eyes when she felt his arms wrap around her navel.

The entire ride home was quiet and tense. There was _something_ sparking in the air between them, but Alec couldn't put his finger on what. He noticed Max wasn't so rash in her driving as she usually was, and he liked to think it was because she was being mindful of his injuries. To his relief, they had no trouble getting back to Terminal City. They were both very aware of the heat radiating off the other, mingling between them to create a near unbearable friction. It sent their hair prickling on end, and skin tingling with the threaten of goose bumps. She drove him to the base of his building, very near the door, before putting the bike in park. Alec slid off without question, and the tension between them made Max's nerves jittery. With a calming breath, she kicked the kickstand out and stepped off her bike.

The minute she turned to face Alec, his head rose in her direction, brows furrowed in confusion. He stiffened slightly, straightening his posture as Max walked toward him with steady, determined steps. The deep purr of her bike's engine seemed to match perfectly to the feral dominance her body adopted as she moved. She knew she didn't have to put a hand on him because he would react instinctually. And instinctually, he stepped backward in pace with her, doing the predatory dance they always did; their movements matched up, Alec sliding a step back for every step Max took forward. The scent of rain became thick in the air around them, stifling the very potent scent of both their shifting pheromones.

Their eyes remained locked the entire time, until Alec's back finally connected with the wall of his building. Being forced to stop, he flattened against the surface, from the tip of his head to his palms to his heels. Sage eyes were slightly wide as they searched Max's hard face, but her gaze lowered to the shirt covering his torso, the glare in her eye suggesting it was a treacherous insult. He didn't move, only his eyes shifting to follow her hands as they slowly came up and lifted the edges of his shirt. Alec hissed slightly when the cold night air breezed over his skin, and his abdomen flexed in response. But his eyes watched Max's face as her eyes watered slightly at the sight before her.

His stomach was dark and ugly with bruises, the red slash going horizontally across it held together by thick stitches. The shirt lowered softly as she laid it back down, and her eyes snapped up to Alec's face. His breath was caught in his lungs as Max brought one hand up, and gently brushed his hair up to reveal the two staples on the right side of his skull. The breath skittered out his nose when he felt his hair fall back in place, and Max's eyes locked back onto his own. Without warning, her hands latched onto either side of his lower jaw, and she dragged Alec forward until their lips came crashing together in a bruising kiss. A heavy groan left him at the surprise, but he didn't hesitate to respond to the feverish pressure.

As if they hadn't seen each other in years, their mouths moved against one another without restraint, devouring the taste of the other with skilled tongues and greedy lips. Alec brought his hands up to grip around her curvaceous sides, pulling her forward to curl into his battered form. His fingers glided over her jacket until one was able to curl around the back of her neck so she couldn't escape his heady kisses. Max held back the moan at his desperation, and carefully pulled her hands off him, only so they could slide beneath his jacket and press into his curling back. A sharp half-scream, half-groan slipped through their kiss at the pressure she applied, and Max realized Alec's back was also heavily bruised from the feeling of contuse flesh beneath her fingertips.

She eased the press of her fingers, but didn't stop the ardent movement of her lips, and Alec only pulled her closer to urge her on. Alec's fingers jerked up into her hair, but the moment he tangled them into her straight locks of black, her hands slipped down to his hips and she forcefully pushed him back. His rear met with the wall again without much protest, but his swelling erection twitched at the disappointing turn of events. Her aggressiveness succeeded in making him more aroused, but he knew by the tautness in her muscles it wasn't what he wanted it to be. Green eyes were sparkling with inquiry and hesitation as they searched through the unreadable dark brown of Max's eyes, which were practically black in her aroused state. He could smell it now, even through the rain, but she held him at bay with cautious eyes flickering about his face.

Even as he stared into her eyes, Alec could see her perfect mouth was slick with their mixed saliva, making the plump red darker and sinfully erotic. Her lips were parted slightly, a heavy breath continuously ghosting over them as she looked to be on the verge of both crying and speaking. _'Don't ever do this again, _is what she wanted to say to Alec, but for the life of her, she couldn't get the words out, nor any comparable substitution. They were caught in her throat as she tried not to think about how Alec's own lips were darker and shining, begging to be teased; to be licked and gnawed on, tugged between her teeth with the promise of so much more. If she stayed in his grip any longer, she knew her will wouldn't last, so she did the only thing she knew she could do.

She pulled away from him completely, and turned without a word to leave. And he, knowing who she is, let go of her soundlessly.

Max didn't look back as she got back onto her still running bike, and took off down the street. Alec let his hands fall lifelessly to his sides, not a thought crossing through his mind. He didn't know what to think, so didn't bother himself with the headache. He merely stayed slumped against the wall, staring after the empty streets where Max had disappeared with a blank look on his face. The flush in his cheeks slowly died away, as did the pinch of arousal in his groin, leaving him feeling empty and incomplete. Only when the rain started to fall, crashing around him in orchestral beats, did he move himself into the building.

The flight of stairs to the second floor, and where his apartment was, were taken carefully. A finger continuous rubbed over his tender lips, the breathtaking pressure having left an imprint on his lips. They still tingled with the loss of their partner, a phantom kiss still pressing to his slightly swollen lips. When he got to his door, he had to knock because his kidnappers had taken all of his personal effects from him. Luckily, Joshua hadn't been able to sleep since Alec went missing, and immediately opened the door upon hearing the knock. There wasn't even a pause before the beast rushed forward, and Alec instantly jerked back and held his hands up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy there Big Fella. I'm not really very durable right now," Alec pleaded with a cheesy grin. "So go easy on me, okay?" Joshua looked at him for a moment, tilting his head the slightest bit, before he slowly leaned forward, and wrapped Alec in the warmest hug he'd ever experienced. A small chuckle stuttered from his lips, and he pat Joshua on the shoulder a few times, before his own weak arms settled over the tall man's shoulders. Joshua let go of him after a few moments, but kept one arm protectively around Alec's torso. For once, Alec didn't protest as his friend gently helped him into their apartment, and eased him on their old leather couch.

With a sigh, Alec settled onto it, and a lazy grin spread over his cooling lips as he closed his eyes. "Home sweet home," he mumbled to himself as he listened to Joshua shuffle around their apartment. After a few minutes, Joshua returned with a hot cup of tea, and handed it to Alec. "Thanks," he murmured as he took it, and Joshua nodded and sat across from him in his big, comfy chair.

"You ok, Medium Fella?" Joshua asked worriedly. Alec forced a small smile.

"Yeah. I'm always okay," he said cheekily, but he sounded tired. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, and Alec was grateful that Joshua didn't ask what happened to him. He didn't think he could handle another story time at the moment; Joshua knew he would talk when he was ready, and the dog-man wasn't the pushy type. It made Alec suddenly appreciate his friendship so much more, and though he would _never_ admit it, he was glad he didn't have to sleep in an empty house tonight. Joshua's presence brought him comfort, and for the first time since he escaped, Alec truly relaxed.

"Max worried 'bout you," Joshua spoke quietly. Alec laughed a little, which degraded into a small groan as he winced at his convulsing stomach. He adjusted his position on the couch, before huddling his tea closer to his chest and breathing in its soothing aroma.

"Yeah, well…she has a funny way of showing it," he mumbled softly while staring at the floor.

"Max fearless. But Max fear you." Joshua's words made Alec's eyes snap to him so fast, he grew a little dizzy.

"What? Why?"

"Logan," Joshua said simply, causing the furl in Alec's brow to deepen. "Logan safe. Cannot touch…keeps walls firm. Pretend cannot hurt more than falling. You...you dangerous. Can touch. Can break walls down." The words were slow, as if they had been practiced many times before, though Alec knew they hadn't. Silence hung thickly in the air, because Joshua didn't need to say the rest for it to sink in. _'Max is afraid of falling for me? That's impossible,'_ Alec told himself, but he was no longer as convinced as he should be. Perturbed, he stared blankly at the wall as a battle went on in his head.

"Drink tea; get sleep," Joshua told him, before he lifted himself off the chair. As he passed by Alec, he gently placed a paw atop the man's head and said, "Happy you're home." Then, he retired to bed, leaving Alec alone to be haunted by his thoughts.

**AN: There will be more plot related things in the next chapter, and hopefully a lot more sexy things too ;) In the mean time, I hope this can hold you over! I rather like how it came out, so I hope you enjoyed it too. Also, happy October everyone! **


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